


Part of a Whole

by Robin_Egg_Blue



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Gen, Is this venting work or am I truely this cruel irl, Slow Burn, and anti and dark are considered sins in this whoops, my old christian ways still love the ideas on sins, my verison of anti is a mild boi, the rest of the egos come into play later in the story, the title sounds sexual but its not, the world may never know
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-04-14 20:08:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 42,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14143590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robin_Egg_Blue/pseuds/Robin_Egg_Blue
Summary: Since the beginning of time itself, Sins have walked alongside humans and have been tasked with keeping order. The more humanity exercised a Sins power the stronger that Sin became. As humanity progressed throughout history, the Sins followed behind like a shadow.But the Sins themselves were not incorruptible the same as their human counterparts. A bloody war, broken leadership, and destroyed home led to the creation of a beautiful yet deadly creature tasked with killing one of the most powerful Sins in the Order. Now she's on a time limit, but if there's one thing she learned from all her years of killing is that things rarely go quick and smooth. The only bad thing about this hunt is that a clean slate keeps her from remembering who's friend and who's foe.





	1. Blood in the Alley

**Author's Note:**

> Yes Hello Hi! Some of you might think that username looks familiar and that's cause I usually post on fanfiction.net, but I really really wanted to post this Anti fic that I've been working on so here it is! I used to just post it on my Tumblr, but I finally caved and got an archive account and here we are! I really enjoy feedback so please send some my way!
> 
> Happy reading!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rewrote this because it always felt off? I added a few things, took away some things, and made things a bit clearer.

              The years hadn’t been kind to Famine, she felt slower and weaker than she had ever felt before. Humanity was pushing her closer and closer to the chopping block and she wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or afraid. She had been around for too many years, but the death of a Sin was something not to be taken lightly…

              A small rat scurried past her foot as she shoved her hands deeper into her pockets. She was walking in downtown Livingston at the god-awful time of 2:36 am. He was sporadic and unpredictable which did nothing but helped him keep a host longer than anyone else but made him difficult to track down, but Famine had eyes and ears everywhere; a perk of being a Horsemen.

             “He won’t travel out too far…” she mused aloud as she stopped and looked up a middle-class apartment. Well-kept and clean, but she took note of the faint scratches on the handle of the door. She moved on.

              She was new with her host as well. A thin woman that barely found the money to pay rent, much less buy food. Her skin clung to her bones like wet clothes and she was in an almost permanent state of unconsciousness. She wasn’t an ideal host, but she’d do.

              Famine stopped at the corner and waited for the light to turned red despite no cars being on the road for miles. She wasn’t in too big of a rush, not yet anyway. Another right, straight, straight, left, and another right.

              The shadow of the alleyway loomed ahead of her with a lone street lamp at the other end flickering a sickly yellow light every now and again. She could see the faintest outline of something in the brief flicker of light, but more importantly, she could  _smell_  it. The unmistakable copper tint of blood that she had come to know and where there was blood there was usually a body.

              She walked blindly into the alley, trusting what little light she was given not to trip. Her footfalls echoed softly through the alley, but it was enough for it to become the only noise in the alley. The farther she walked, the stronger the scent of blood became.

              Suddenly, the silhouette of a tall broad man was in front of her when the lights flickered and shoved her against the concrete wall with incredible strength. She felt her skull crack against the wall and a knife press against her neck ready to slice it open; she felt static tingle her skin.

              “ _It’s me,_ ” she said staring down the space she guessed where his face was. The grip on her throat loosened slightly, but the knife stayed still.

              “ _Move the fucking knife,_ ” she spat again, “ _So help me if my host wasn’t so weak, I’d kick your ass right here and now._ ”

              That seemed to prove enough. He pulled the knife back from her neck and dropped her down to the ground. She gasped slightly for air and rubbed her throat before glancing up at her attacker who simply went back to his work.

_“I'm impressed you had the smarts to kill in a dark alley this time,"_  she taunted as she stepped up beside him,  _"The last time I saw you, you killed in a well-lit parking lot and your host was killed three days later.”_

             W͎͙͈̽͋̈́̄̉̏h͇̥̹̝̜̽ͨ́ͮ̄̎a̳͎̥͕͛͋t̤̙̩̝̪̙͆ ̦̏̌d̶o̠͈̮̐̈̓̎͗̓̂ ̨͖̼͕̰͇̝́ͧ̉͒̏ͤ̓ẏ͚͍̽o̟͎̝̳ü̢͎̟͙̭̫̹̋ͣ̈́͆͌̎ͅ ̺̦͖̮̎̊ͧ̓̉ͧ͞ͅw̡͉̐͐a̪̒̏͑ͦͪn͈̣̗̟̉ͭ̒ͦ̃t̵̝̦?̄̈̋͆͑

              There he was

_“You should know how I am by now,”_ Famine answered and leaned against the wall and he plunged the knife into his victim's eye,  _“I want to keep tabs on you and you’re good company to keep around…sometimes.”_ He stayed silent once more and Famine sighed quietly.

              _“Who have you met so far?”_  She asked again as blood splashed to the ground. Another flicker of light and she saw blood covering his arms before they were plunged back into darkness.

              No͠ ͢͠o͢n̴̴͘e ͝i̵͜m̴͡po̕͝r̛҉͟ţ̕͢a̡n̴҉͞t

              Famine knew there was more to his story and simply listened to him work. Silence wore down everyone at some point, even someone like him.

              J̴̕͟u͘͜st̶͏ ͞t̵h̕a̡͞t̴ pi҉͏͘e̵̡͘c͢͏͢e ̢ǫ̴f̛ s͟͟͜ḩ̴i҉͢t̸ ̴̕f͝ro̷̷͘m̡ ̧͜b̴͡efo̸̵҉r̶̛e

              _“Are you sure you two aren’t hunting each other out? You two seem to be finding each other a lot these days,”_ There was the sound of metal of rock, his knife slashing the ground just inches away from her feet by the sound of it.

              It wasn't hard for Famine to know who he was talking about just by that simple description alone. She knew just about Sin and Atrocity that had walked the earth and there were only a few Sins that ever encountered the man standing before her.

              Ma҉y̡͟͠b̢̨ę he growled, and Famine could hear the twisted grin in his words.

_"I'm serious about this, Insanity."_  The street light flickered, illuminating pitch black eyes staring back at Famine daring her to make a move,  _"You don't truly know this world yet. They will chew you up and spit you out without a second thought. Stay. Out. Of. It."_

             Silence; Tense and very dangerous silence. Insanity could live up to his name and lash out at one of the top Horsemen and easily take her out. She was weak enough that he very easily could, and he already got the jump on her once tonight. She placed a lot of trust in the younger Sin by coming out here so weak by herself. Famine kept her weapon ready to pull from the void just in case he did decide to try his luck on her.

               Iţ̶'͢͡s҉ ̢̛n͟͠ot̢͏ ͝͠w̢̕ǫrt̢͞h̨͠ ̷͡t̷̛h͘e ̢e͘n̛erg̛͞y͜͠ ̵͜a͘͜n҉y͞w̧ay̢ he growled and Famine saw him turn away in the flickering lamplight.

              _"That's what I thought..."_ Silence once more, but this was only slightly less uneasy than the last. Famine sighed deeply as a strong scent of the body between them, " _Go home for the night, I'll make sure the body is taken care of and found properly."_ Insanity hesitated for a moment like he wanted to say more but decided against it and walked pasted Famine back out into the main street. Famine fumbled about in the dark shifting the body before hoisting on her shoulders. She walked a few steps, fell and made sure to leave bloody handprints on the ground. She summoned a crowbar and coated it in that victim's blood before leaving the alley.

              While hundreds of miles away, far underground, a group a people meet in secret far away from anyone else. Their work, sinful and immoral as it is, is threatened with their lives and families. Bodies were stung up in the halls, and those that refused to work were killed in front of everyone as an example of what would happen to those that disobeyed.   

              The driving force behind the project was a War, a power-hungry and vengeful Horseman on a path to find those that wronged him and those he loved, but he knew that he could not do this task alone.

              His beautiful Queen; his one true companion. When then chaos he caused was over, then she was sure to burn what was left alive to a powdered ash. His beautiful Arson was taken away by Justice after a small “accident” involving the rest of his Council. He was  _ **promised**_  that he would have her back one day, but he was done waiting. He was having her back  _now._

              He had spent months searching for the perfect host for her, but he couldn’t trust a living host. If she resided in a mortal host then he ran the risk of losing her all over again. So, he widened search and began including freshly killing humans as test subjects. Then, he began trying to implant what remained of Arson into his human test subjects. The results were… disappointing… to say the least. Most subjects committed suicide within the first 48 hours, while the rest fell into a coma and later died due to brain damage.

But then, there was a breakthrough. One of the scientists proposed an idea that had been used over a decade ago to reanimated bodies to test the idea of memory retention after death. For three weeks he pushed the group day and night to perfect it until they finally had it. They said the testing host was sure to survive, so War had saved his most perfectly preserved body just for this; Young woman killed before her prime. Forever stuck as she was killed, a perfect host for his Queen.

              “We're ready to go, sir." One of the scientists said at one of the terminals as War plugged in the flash drive to the mainframe. He had been waiting for this day for months; now he was finally going to have her back.

              There were a few shouted commands from a few other scientists before the machines started up with a loud buzz. More shouting filled the air along with the strong scent of copper and the filling of static. A few scientists flinched away from their controls as blue arches of lightning jumped into the air.

Suddenly, the ground began shaking and the protective glass shattered with a blinding light; Everyone, including War, was throw back at the force. Regardless, War was the first up and to the test subject only to find her eyes wide open and shining like molten lava. War smiled kindly and laid a hand on hers, but she didn't respond.

              "Welcome back, my love."         


	2. Library

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Chapter 2! Here we learn a bit more about my sweet baby bean Arson and kick-start this parade! An extra special thanks to justyouwaitforit for the wonderful comment on the first chapter it really did this stony heart good :') Many of the questions asked will be answered but be patient my friends were in for the long haul on this one.
> 
> Enjoy!  
> P.S. I'm a Southerner so sometimes my slang terms and spelling bleed into my writing, but I try to catch them before I post :)

Years had passed since then; battles fought and people died. The world kept going.

 

The Arson War had created wasn’t his Arson, it wasn’t his Queen. What he created was a ruthless killing machine when what he wanted back was an artful master of fire and flame. She had more flaws than redeeming qualities; attitude, improper views, sick killing methods, and…unintended side effects that War had tried multiple times to suppress and remove to no avail. She wasn’t worthy of the name Arson.

 

Still, she had some use. War used her to take out those that caused him and his plan too much grief, both human and Sin a like. She pulled her killings off flawlessly and expected nothing in the form of praise or reward like War had trained her to be. If it hadn’t been for that, she would be dead.

 

Arson herself knew that she was a flawed creation. She felt it with every rip and fracture of her being no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Failure stabbed like a dagger in her heart every time she caught a glimpse of herself fracture in a passing hallway mirror or in the eyes of a victim. She wanted nothing more than to be a whole being, she didn’t care what. She wasn’t dead, but she wasn’t alive either; she wasn’t a Sin, but she wasn’t…

 

**“Arson!!!”** Arson jumped out of her cot as Wars booming voice rang across the halls. Her knife catered to the floor as he busted in, his eyes fuming.

 

**“What did I tell you about using that damn knife!!!”** He threw something but Arson didn’t catch what it was before it shattered against the wall next to her head. Arson dared not move.

 

“What would you rather me use then?” She asked calmly as War paced her room, most likely looking for something else to throw her way to shatter her skull.

 

**“YOUR FUCKING POWERS!!!”** He roared directly into her face. Arson stared straight ahead and did her best to not let her knees buckle under her, **“YOU ARE NOT A BARBARIAN!!!!”**

“I was in a concrete jail cell there was no way I could burn anything and make it look like an accident,” she said still not breaking her gaze, “I did what I thought was best…”

 

**“And it was wrong…as usual.”** War knelt down and picked up her blade and promptly crushed the blade in his massive hand. The entire weapon turned to dust and fell to the floor, **“This will be your biggest hunt. I don’t expect you to come back from it.”** He roughly shoved a file into her chest and almost pushed her back onto her cot.

 

**“You’ve got the rest of today then leave and get it done.”** War slammed the door roughly on his way out; the entire room shook as he walked down the hall and Arson was left standing in the middle. She took a shaky breath and flipped open the file and quickly thumbed through the information.

 

“Vanity?” She wondered aloud, “Why does War want a Sin like Vanity taken out so urgently?” She set the file down on the only table in the room and spread out the papers to see them better.

 

Vanity was an Attention Sin that gained power by the attention from humans. From the information she had, he had been around for hundreds of years but had recently found what was called a permanent host. Vanity didn’t need to kill as long as he was with his permanent host, but there were always exceptions…

 

There was information missing. Most contracts she was given had a contacts section that she could start tracking from, but the one for Vanity was missing. It could be that he could be a solitary Sin, or War could have forgotten to include it. Either way, she’d had to find the information herself which meant she’d need to go topside.

 

She groaned and ran a hand through her hair in frustration. She _hated_ going topside for any reason. She wanted to be left alone away from everyone, Sin and human alike and the scientists topside watched her as if she was a wild tiger ready to pounce at a moment's notice. In a way she was, but only if War told her to.

 

She quickly got dressed in her red cloak before grabbing her half skull mask and securing it to her face. She took a quick look at herself at in the line shattered mirror in the corner and her bright lava-like eyes stared back at her from behind empty sockets. She gave herself a half grin, tired and sad, before quickly walking out her room and down the hall.

 

Topside was filled with scientists researching anything and everything War told them to. Arson didn’t interfere with their work and they gave her a wide berth on the rare occasions she came topside. They were one reason she didn’t go topside so often, but another was the mass number of machines and technology. War forbid her from touching anything related to computers, but just being near them made her skin prickle and her mind race; she had no idea why and when she asked War the only answer she received was the back of his hand.

 

The familiar tingling and buzzing started at the top of her head as she climbed up the stairs level by level until she reached the top. She felt jittery and bouncy as she pushed through the main door and onto the overhead catwalk. She kept her head down and her hands dug into her pockets as she passed by other scientists. She recognized some of their faces briefly, an older lady with a harsh blue-eyed stare or that red-haired boy with the birthmark on his neck, but there was a lot she didn’t recognize. She caught them mid-step and felt them stare at her as she passed. She should have been used to it by now, but she wasn’t, not by a long shot. She heard their sneers and comments when she would pass by and they thought she was out of earshot. She could take War’s physical abuse all day, but it was always their words that seemed to cut deeper than any weapon he could use against her.

 

She finally arrived at her destination, the facilities library. Any information that she needed about anything she could find it here. What made the place even better was that there was no proper library keeper. The last keeper, an old man named Micha, died several years ago and since most information was available on computers, no one besides Arson came anymore.

 

Arson sighed deeply as sigh as the door shut behind her. The air was still showing that no one had been in recently; good. She pushed her hood back and took her mask off and set it down on the old keeper's desk and set to work searching for the right document. The library was designed to hold every bit of relevant knowledge for the scientists' work which was anything from quantum physics to stopping death itself. Once they began studying the Sins and Atrocities of Humanity they began moving their data to computers but kept paper copies of everything in case something went wrong.

 

Arson casually walked down the aisle way and took a left into a large double shelved hallway. About ten feet on either side was filled with file upon file of information on different Sins and Atrocities of Humanity, some were still around but most were long dead. A select few were missing like hers and Wars and a few others for a variety of reasons, but War kept hers with him at all times. He said that he didn’t want anyone to use it against her and it made sense. After all, no Sin or Atrocity was immortal.

 

“Where are you at?” She glanced down at the file in her hand and then back to the cabinet. She knew Vanity was still around otherwise War would never send her after them, so that narrowed it down at least a little bit. The lower shelves weren’t showing up anything so it was time to climb higher. She leaped up at grabbed onto the closest shelf and the entire bookcase wobbled at the sudden weight. Arson gasped and dug her nails into the wood until the rocking stopped and nimbly climbed up, scanning the shelves as she went. Her hands brushed passed some rat droppings as she climbed higher and higher up the shelves before she finally stopped one shelve from the top. She grabbed the file, used one hand to secure herself to the bookcase and used the other to look for the missing information.

_From what had been observed, Vanity seems to keep to itself as far away as possible from any other Sin. When forced into interaction with another Sin, Vanity resorts to sarcasm and snide remarks to try and drive the Sin away. If that doesn't work, Vanity ends up attacking. The only known surviving contacts have been the Council Horseman Famine and Insanity, with whom the two have caused many peroneal deaths when in contact with._

So that was why War wanted Vanity taken out. He was the only connection to Famine that anyone had found since she had left the Council decades ago, but something else stuck out to her. Insanity? She was taught the names of every Sin but had never heard of Insanity before.

 

She placed Vanities file back and scaled back down the bookcase to continue searching and didn’t have to search far to find the small and slightly soiled file. She pulled herself up to the top of the bookcase the read the full file, but there wasn’t much to begin with, there wasn’t even a picture.

 

_Identification: Insanity_

_Safety precaution level: 100_

_WARNING!!! Subject is highly unstable and is liable to attack anyone be it human or Sin. Insanity is under the watch of Famine at all times regardless of Council orders. DO NOT APPROACH WITHOUT THE GUIDANCE OF THE HORSEMAN FAMINE!!!_

 

There wasn’t any form of description or detaining method for Insanity it was a bunch of scientific reports and experiment papers along with some handwritten letters by someone named Dr. Howard. Arson would have sat down and read all of them had she had the time; she simply picked one of the last papers and started reading.

 

_Report #290_

_Despite numerous warnings to stop harassment, Marcus refused to stop and the security team found him dead at his computer this morning. When I was called in, Famine was already there before I was and it was evident that Insanity was the cause of death, but it wasn’t his usual killing marks. It was a straight bullet to the brain through and through in an attempt to copy another Sins killing style. It was sloppy, but a sign of learning._

_When confronted, Insanity admitted to the killing. He said that he wanted to make Marcus suffer as much as possible so he got inside his mind and made his last few days a living hell for him. Insanity didn’t kill Marcus, Marcus killed himself after all Insanity had put him through finally came to a head at his computer via a series of images on his computer screen. Very clever, sick, but clever._

_Personal note: Famine had a personal talk with Insanity without any security or research staff present. Watch Council activity closely._

So, Famine seemed to be Insanity’s guardian of sorts thought she hadn’t heard Insanity's name before in the Compound. It was always possible that he went by a different name, but it was unlikely.

 

She still wasn’t any closer to finding Vanity. She shifted through the papers again and found a more relevant one.

 

_Report #13_

_Insanity was placed with Vanity to test socialization between the two. It did not end…well. Famine and Death were brought in to stop the fighting and nine other security officers were needed to subdue the two Sins. It started off simply enough with simple banter before it began escalating into fighting. Vanity walked away with various gashes including a deep one in his host's neck and Insanity left with multiple bullet wounds in his body. Both Sins needed replacement hosts and were placed on opposite ends of the compound. I have put in a request that, should they be released into humanity, they be kept far away from each other as possible._

Arson growled and flipped through more pages until one caught her eye. This one was in the very back, the most recent handwritten letter and it was covered in bloody fingerprints and tears. Some parts she could read, but most she couldn’t.

 

_Ghost of the archives…_

_It was a mistake agreeing to study that… nothing but a mistake… broke them all out…_

_Came for me and slit my throat… black eyes and…wouldn’t stop bleeding… afraid… says that’s…wants… not Insanity… Anti… Always Anti… not worthy…. Name…_

 

She couldn’t make out anything else from all the blood and damages on the paper. She was holding the words of a dead man, most likely a respected man if he worked with a Horseman like Famine. She knew more about what she was up against, but not where to find either of them or even where to start. She needed to do more digging before she could confidently leave the compound to hunt.

 

While hundreds of miles away, Famine walked down the downtown street with a bag full of books and papers slung over her shoulder. The sidewalk was somewhat empty save for the odd homeless person or school skipping teen. Most people were either at home or at work on a Tuesday morning and normally Famines host would be one of them, but she had more important things to do.

 

“Good morning, Ms. Richfield!” A bright voice called as she passed a fruit stand. A young girl in her mid-20s stuck her head out the door at an alarming speed for so early in the morning, “Off to the Library?”

 

“Shouldn’t you be working, Amanda?” She asked with her host's voice, “and, yes. Vega asked me to write up a piece for the paper and my computer at home is broken,”

 

“Well, that’s not any good.” Famine gave a tired smile at the young woman’s interest. It was nice, even if it was clearly fake, "I can always ask Jackson if he can fix it up for you if you'd like?"

 

"I don't want to bother him, but thank you, dear." Famine said with the sweetest smile she could muster and started walking away.

 

"Be safe, Ms. Richfield!" The younger woman called out before returning to her work. The streets were a dangerous place for everyone, even for her. There was a looming shadow being cast over what remained of the Sins and Atrocities of Humanity and there could only be one person behind it. In the past, the Council would have come together and put an end to it but after the Fallout and the turning of the century, things hadn't been the same. Still, one way or another there needed to be balance and Famine was going to find it.

 

She felt a strange peace wash over her when she saw the archways of the city library and she couldn't help but sigh in content as if someone had pulled a massive weight of her shoulders. The small fountain in front was hosting a local college class that morning taking advantage of the cool autumn weather. A few of the students glanced up at her as she walked by and one of them gave a half-hidden wave before returning to their sketchbook. The security guard nodded a greeting and opened the door for her as a light breeze of cold air hit her cheeks. She wished she could get lost in the history section and point out all of the flaws and incorrect information by sticky notes stuck to the old yellowed pages, but she was here for a reason.

 

Famine swiftly made her way up to the second floor and went to the furthest computer by the wall. There wasn't anybody on the floor with her, but she still didn't want to risk being seen. She pulled up a seat and began pulling out the piles and piles of books and papers stuffed from her bag as she booted up her computer. Months and months of notes that she needed to get to Micha as soon as possible, but she'd be killed if she set one foot on the Compound grounds. Thankfully, they hadn't thought to shut down her Council access. Dumbasses... All she needed to do was get into contact with Micha and have him update a few files and then she could move on.

 

Meanwhile, Arson was sprawled out on the bookshelf staring at the ceiling trying to put the pieces together. How did Vanity and Insanity fit together in this? And how was Horseman Famine involved in all of this? She wasn't aware that her claws had started coming out until she felt them digging into the wood of the bookshelf. She squeezed her eyes shut as tight as possible and tried to focus on anything but the fragile feeling seeping into her bones and fingers. She couldn't break apart, not here not now.

 

_Beep Beep_

_Beep Beep_

Arson almost didn't hear it at first. She mistook it for a mouse at first, but that was before she heard someone talking a few moments later. An older woman by the sound of her voice, but she almost sounded desperate.

 

_"Micha? Micha, It's me. Damnit why do you never keep your phone on you..."_  the voice cut out with a sharp click as Arson stood up and climbed back down the bookshelf. She followed the direction of the voice and the beeping but ended up following her nose about half away. She ended up in a backroom swarming with flies and wrecking with the smell of death and rot. Arson covered her nose and flipped on the light and found a blotted, maggot-filled corpse of a man slumped over against the wall. His eyes were bugged out, almost popping out completely and his lips were swollen twice their normal size. He had an empty pistol in his hand and a cellphone in the other. She wanted to get close and find out who this man was and why he hadn't been found or reported to the Compound staff or security, but she had a feeling she knew who it was anyway...

 

_"Micha?"_ A voice called again and Arson quickly switched off the light and closed the door. She could faintly hear the sound of tire treads of carpet. Whoever it was they were in the library with her. _"Micha where the hell are you?"_

She quickly slunk down and skirted along the edge of the closest bookshelf and tried to pinpoint where this person was. She kept her knife ready to pull from the void just in case she needed to fight her way out, but would much rather question this person and why they wanted to speak with the dead man in the back room. She couldn't use her fire here or else she'd risk burning the entire library down and her only source of information to the outside world.

 

Arson quickly climbed up the bookshelves to get a better view of the situation and gracefully leaped from shelf to shelf without disrupting a single book, but she still couldn't find the person but she could still hear them. She stopped three bookshelves from the front and carefully looked over to see an old rust covered robot holding her mask in one of its claws. Arson scowled and hunched down low to the shelving as the robot set her mask down and continued its search, but no longer called out for Micha.

 

Famine knew something was wrong when the library was unusually empty, but then she noticed the small half skull mask laying on one of the dust-covered desks, on Micha's desk. The sensors for the robot were old and badly needed tuning, but she could still hear something scratching and knocking against the floorboards as she guided the robot through the library. Someone was in the library with her, watching her and they didn't want to be seen. It was either going to end in a fight, or end in a pleasant conversation and Famine had been around long enough that the chances of the second option very very slim.

 

Suddenly, her screen crackled and the video feed cut out but she could still hear audio. She heard a loud thud, the sound of a knife slamming into wood, and a broken and choppy voice echoed through her headphones.

 

~~"Who are...you?"~~ The broken voice asked as Famine tried to move the robot back the way she came. The video came back online and she could see the silhouette of someone perched up on the bookshelf, but it was like they were visibly affecting the video feed. Famine couldn't get a clear picture of who, or what this was watching her.

 

"Archive maintenance." Famine answered simply, "Have you seen a man by the name of Micha anywhere?" She couldn't tell, but she swore the figure tilted its head almost in confusion.

 

~~"If you are maintenance...then you should know this place is abandoned..."~~ The figure gracefully leaped from the bookshelf, but still stayed its distance from her, ~~"Micha is...Gone"~~

 

"Well, which department did he go to?" Famine asked, "This is very important..."

 

~~"You're not maintenance..."~~ The figure cut her off sharply and Famine sighed from her side of the screen.

 

"Look, kid, I'm really short on time I just need to know where Micha is and I'll on my way." Famine watched the figure slink from one side of her screen to the other cautiously watching her every move and taking in every piece of her, at least the robot anyway.

 

~~"This way..."~~ The figure said and started walking towards the back corner of the library. The figure quickly climbed back up the bookshelves and walked along the top, probably to put as much distance between them as possible while still being able to keep an eye on her. Whoever this was clearly trained to handle situations like this.

 

~~"He's in there..."~~ The figure jerked its head towards the closet door and crossed its arms over its chest. Famine almost went in, but then she remembered what the figure said before.

 

"What did you mean before? About Micha being gone?" She adjusted the robot up to the figure and watched the figure sit with its legs dangling over the ledge. The video crackled again hard as the figure spoke.

 

~~"I don't know what got to him, but he has been there for a long time,"~~ the figure spoke with its head hung low, ~~"No one comes in here beside me and if I had known he was here then I would have done something..."~~

"It's fine," Famine said, but this made things difficult. She needed those files and she needed to update her and Anti's, but she had no clue where Micha would have put them and she didn't trust this figure enough to ask. After all, she couldn't even see their face. Famine thought briefly who could have gotten to him; it could have been any number of them but she didn't want to dwell too long on the subject.

 

"If that's the case then I think I'll take my leave..." She went to shut the robot down, but the figure jumped down in front of her, completely blacking out her screen and making the video glitch and cut out hard.

 

~~"Wait!"~~ The figure shouted, but it must have been too much for the robot. Famine tried to respond she really did, but the old robot cut out video one last time before she was completely cut out of the system altogether. Famine sighed deeply and leaned back in the chair with her face buried in her hands. Without Micha, this was going to be a lot harder, but that seemed to be the status quo for her these days, but she'd manage. She always had.

 

She didn't know what had happened. One second she was in front of the machine grabbing onto the camera and the next the whole thing just shuts down in her hands and falls to the floor in a shower of sparks. It was the most interaction she had had with anyone in months and she had destroyed it. Her hands tingled sharply and she quickly pulled them to her chest to keep herself from shaking violently.

 

"It's ok...it's ok..." She tried to soothe herself, but she could feel herself ripping apart; the fabric of her being begging to be let loose. She gritted her teeth and dug her nails into the flesh of her palms, "Focus...focus..."

 

"Maybe... I can track the user from the robot," she said shakily. She didn't want to get anywhere near the robot with how bad it caused her to want to break and shake, but she had no other choice and she was going to run out of time eventually. 

 

She forced herself to shut her mind off as she worked, but she was always faintly aware of the small cracks and breaks in her fingers and arms and the sickly dark red blood that dripped from the gashes on her palms.

 

 

 

 


	3. Smoke on the Shore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Chapter 3! For some reason when I tried to copy and paste this chapter over from word it deleted half of the chapter and I just :) But! It's here now and I hope it lives up to expectations! 
> 
> Enjoy!

Her research led her to a dreary town along the coast of England; a place called Whitby in North Yorkshire.  The cool autumn air greeted her as she stepped down from the plane, but she was so used to the Compounds freezing year-round temperatures that it didn't bother her at all. She sat outside the airport with her worn leather-bound notebook opened at her lap with a few detailed noted and an address written on the faded yellow paper. She was in her civilian clothes: dark blue skinny jeans, a red and black flannel and her hair was pulled up into a messy bun. She tried to model and dress herself to match with the seasons and with what humans would normally wear, but it was often hard to keep up with the treads.

She leaned back with a sigh and examined the start of the sketch of Vanity off to the side of her notes. He wasn't here it Whitby, she was here because whoever was controlling the robot in the Compound accessed it from somewhere nearby, and she was going to find them. She wasn't ready to leave just yet though, she wasn't in a rush to find the hacker. If anything, they would be reasonably easy to find given how small the area was, and that Arson had the exact address where they gained access. She could take her time here and learn.

"... the poor girl in Brighton?" She caught the tail end of a sentence as she started tracing the sharp jawline, "Was a real shame."

"She's the third one this month," someone else chimed in as the conversation came closer, "and the damn pigs down there don't know how to catch a killer if they were standing in plain day..." Arson carefully shaded the jawline and added some finishing touches before closing the book and sliding it into her bag and heading to the address and just happened to be trailing behind the two women talking from before.

"It's just not safe anymore," one of them said, "Mariah lives down there and she swears that she heard something one night. I tried to convince her to come up and stay with me until they catch the bastard, but she has to stay for classes."

"Poor girl..." The other woman replied, but Arson broke away and crossed the street and started heading towards a massive building on the corner. The small fountain sparkled in the late afternoon sun, but the entrance was otherwise empty save for a guard at the building door. Arson took a second to check her information, but she was defiantly in the right place. A massive library, much bigger than the Compounds library, but then again it held more than files of information about monsters.

The guard held the door open for her with a friendly smile and she was greeted with the smell of aged paper and wood and felt the familiar tingling in her body telling her that there was technology nearby. There were a few people seated at the tables with books and paper scattered about clearly deep in studying. Arson made her way upstairs and found a small cluster of sleek computers.

"Found the access point at least..." She muttered under her breath and looked around for any sign of a camera, "Now to just find the hacker..." She couldn't touch any of the technology else War would have her head and just being up here was making her eyesight fuzzy.

"Can I help you with anything?" A quiet voice asked. A young woman in her early 20s stood at the top of the stairs behind her. She had a friendly smile and curly red hair tumbled over her shoulders as her arms were tucked politely behind her back.

“I…um…I left my bag here a few days ago and,” Arson stumbled over her words. She wasn’t good at interacting with humans, it wasn’t her job, “I’ve checked everywhere else and I…I can't find it.”

“I can help you look if you want,” she said walking towards one of the tables and pulling out one of the chairs, “I volunteer here in my spare time, so I know my way around here pretty well.” She flashed her a bright grin, and Arson was taken back for a moment. She had met a kind human before, then again, maybe it was just a trick they did…

“It’s a grey bag,” Arson said as she knelt down and pretended to look around as well, but she was watching the shelves and looking for a quick exit in case things went wrong, and she kept her knife ready to summon at a moment notice.

"Well, not a lot of people use the library computers anymore because they've got their own computers at home," the woman said as she moved from one desk to the next, "Any idea why someone would want to take it?"

“People are greedy and take what isn’t theirs,” Arson said bitterly. She dug her nails into her palms and gritted her teeth as she felt a numbness spread up her spine, but the woman simply laughed.

“That is the nature of the beast,” she said as she sat back on her knees, “and I think that’s what’s happened here. We could try checking the cameras to see who used them last?”

“That could work,” Arson said through gritted teeth, but thankfully the woman didn’t seem to notice. She wouldn’t do this here, she wouldn’t. She forced herself up and followed the woman back down to the first floor.

“My names Amanda by the way,” she said as they stepped into a dimly lit security office, and the numbness in Arson spine was replaced with sharp tingles and pricks, “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”

“I mostly come during the later hours when there's are fewer people," she said, “not a big people person.”

"I understand," Amanda replied as she sat in the worn office chair and began rewinding through the security footage, “About how long ago did you say it was?”

“Two or three days ago” Arson answered as she scanned each frame as it sped by. Amanda wasn’t kidding, hardly anyone used the computers anymore. One or two students, and maybe the odd homeless, but one stuck out to her.

"Wait! Go back a bit…" Amanda played the footage forward and Arson watched an elderly woman sitting at one of the far computers. She wasn't interested in the woman's bag which was filled to the brim with papers, but what was on the woman's screen. Arson could just barely make it out, but it looked like a recording screen with shelves filled with books, just like the Compound.

"Ms. Richfield?" Amanda pondered, "Why would she take your bag?"

"It could be a mistake," Arson said, but her focus was on the video as the woman pulled out her phone twice and then went back to the computer. Another 20 minutes passed before the computer screen seemed to shut down and the woman quickly left, "She's old, and could have thought it was hers."

"Maybe..." Amanda said, "I can take you to her house and see if she has it..."

"Just give me her address," she said harsher than she intended, "I've already taken up too much of your time today." She felt Amanda's stare bore into her back, but she didn't dare move her eyes from the computer screen even as the footage looped over. She was getting testy and she didn't want to lash out at the red-haired woman beside her. Her eyes followed Amanda's hands as they reached for a pen and paper and quickly wrote down an address.

"She lives down by the water and doesn't get many visitors these days since her husband passed last year," she said as Arson pried her eyes away from the screen and looked down at the neon pink sticky note in her hand, "And my phone number, just in case you ever need help with class or wanna grab coffee sometime." She looked up, and noticed that Amanda had a slight rosy hue to her cheeks; she arched an eyebrow and pocketed the sticky note.

"I'm always pretty busy, but I'll keep it in mind," she said slowly, "Thanks for the help." She turned and left as she heard Amanda start to say something, but she didn't want to stay to hear what it was. She quickly walked out the library and was greeted by the fading sunlight and growing chill in the air. She pulled out her notebook along with the sticky note and started searching for the address as she walked through the courtyard, and sure enough, Ms. Richfield lived down by the city shoreline which was easily a 30 minute walk from the library, but hopefully this "Ms. Richfield" would be able to tell her where her target was or else she'd be back to square one.

The house was small and quaint; a perfect home for an old lady living out her last days alone. The sun had completely set by the time she had reached the house, but the lights were still on inside and she could see the shadow of a hunched over figure slowly walk back and forth by the windows. She debated whether she wanted to go in guns blazing and demanding answers or play the innocent card. An old woman couldn't fight back as well as others could, but you never knew with people that worked with the Compound. She summoned her knife and carefully tucked it into her boot as she walked up the front steps, just in case things went wrong.

She knocked sharply on the door, and an elderly woman answered within seconds. The house smelled like baby powder and shag carpet and was pleasantly warm against the cold night air; the old woman was wrapped in a dusty gold shaw with matching glasses sitting low on her nose. Her eyes sat far back in her head and showed years worth of smile lines and wrinkles, she was a typical old woman.

"Can I help you, dear?" She asked kindly and Arson mustered up the best smile she could.

"Are you Ms. Richfield?" She asked and the older woman nodded, "I think you may have taken something of mine by accident at the library a few days ago."

"I don't think so," she said with a chuckle, "I may be an old woman, but I can keep up with my things though I can't say the same about you." Arson bit back a scowl.

"Ms. Richfield, I just came all the way from the library," she pleaded, "Would you at least let me look? It's got some very important things in there." Ms. Richfield sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, and Arson took the chance to glance into her home. Papers were scattered everywhere across the floor, but that was all she saw before Ms. Richfield stepped to the side.

"Come on in then, dear," She said, "and please don't mind the clutter. I'm afraid my bag got away from me and I spilled all of my papers. I'm an editor of the town newspaper, you see."

"Must be hard work," Arson commented as she stepped in and closed the door behind her. Ms. Richfield wondered off to another part of the room as Arson backed up and slowly locked the front door deadbolt.

"Now, what was this bag of yours?" She asked with her back to Arson, "but, I can promise you that I didn't take it."

" _Actually,_ Ms. Richfield." Arson said coolly as she carefully pulled her knife from her boot, "I'm here to ask you about something else..."

"Are you now?" She replied with her head tilted back slightly, but she continued to clean up her mess, "Then please, ask away my dear."

"How did you get into the Compound computer?" Ms. Richfield froze for a split second as Arson stepped forward, "What were you trying to do?"

"Why does it matter to you, dear?" She asked and turned to face her with the calmest expression Arson had ever seen for someone facing certain death.

"I don't want to kill you, Ms. Richfield," Arson replied with a twist of her knife; Ms. Richfield's eyes glanced down towards it then back to her, "But I will if you don't tell me."

"Really now?" She said, but her voice was twisted and cold. Arson tilted her head in confusion before a sharp pain shot up her leg. She cried out and clawed at her leg, only to find a large rat biting at her ankles. She clawed the rat away before Ms. Richfield pinned her against the door, her skin now a sickly grey and her eyes a faded yellow. A curved blade was pressed against her throat and she felt the sharp edge begin to cut her skin.

"You should know better than to threaten your elders, girl." She spat. Arson kicked her as hard as she could in the gut and sent her flying across the room into the wall.

"And here I thought I was just visiting an old scientist in retirement," she said as she rubbed her neck and felt a chill shoot up her spine when her hand pulled back slick with blood, "What my luck that it was a Sin on my radar this time." Her body was shaking, whether it was from excitement or from the sight of her own blood she'd never be able to tell, but the Sin pulled themselves up and stared her down.

"Where's Vanity?" Arson hissed, but the Sin lunged back at her with a shout. She was just barely able to dodge them as the stabbed their curved knife into the door. Arson tried to slice at the Sins back, but they were faster and managed to get a cut on her arm and send her sprawling across the living room floor.

"How long have you been living underground?" They shouted as they tried to get a kick to her gut, but she rolled out of the way before they could, "He hasn't gone by that name in _decades_." Arson bared her teeth as she stumbled to her feet. This fight was going nowhere with just knives alone and there was no telling when they'd use that rat bastard again; Her only option left was to play with fire.

"Why do you care what I want with him?" She snapped as the two slowly circled the room as Arson waited for the perfect time to ignite to shag carpet under them.

"Maybe it is my business," the Sin shrugged, "Time's sure have changed..." They suddenly pulled back their knife and threw it towards her at incredible speed. Arson barely rolled out of the way but dragged her hand along the carpet and a line of burning embers irrupted into flames on the trails of her fingers. Burning heat pushed back the Sin as they shielded their face, but Arson simply sat on the ground as the fire quickly engulfed the room. Arson looked up at the Sin and started walking towards them, but stayed just behind the fire line.

"Make yourself useful before you die please," she said calmly, "because either way I'll find Vanity, with or without your help." The fire began licking at the walls and catching onto the curtains; Arson felt the edges of her clothes begin to burn away, but the Sin still didn't move. They simply held their head higher and a grin played on their lips.

"It takes more than a little fire to kill me, my dear," they said, "But nice try." Suddenly, they rushed towards her. Arson rolled out of the way and had her knife at the ready, but the Sin wasn't going for the attack. Instead, they had thrown themselves into the fire, and Arson watched as their body was quickly engulfed in flames. The body thrashed and screamed in pain as their skin slowly became nothing more than char and their hair was reduced to ash. The heat from the fire seemed to practically melt the poor bastard as the room finally fell silent with only with cracking and burning of the room filling her ears.

"What a waste..." Arson muttered as she stepped out of the blazing room and into the mostly untouched hallway. She caught a quick glimpse of herself in a mirror and saw that most of her clothes had burned away save for a few scraps here and there, but the fire was growing quickly and the police would be at the house soon, she needed to work quickly.

She made a quick run through of the rooms but found most of them empty and bare of anything other than the necessities, but when she got to the office she found dozens of papers and letters just like the ones in the Archives. She didn't have time to read any of them there as the sound of sirens was audible over the roar of the fire. She shielded the papers as she dashed through the flames and out the back door.

Only once was she far enough away did she stop to view her handy work. The once small and quaint little home was now nothing more than a raging inferno with at least three fire trucks and seven police cars at the scene, a new record. Arson sighed quite pleased with herself as she began to inspect herself to see what damage she had.

Most of her upper clothes had been burned away and the fire had brought out the fleshy pink and red burns across her body. Surprisingly, her lower half wasn't nearly as burned away, but what concerned her the most was the various gashes she has managed to get during the fight. She was getting too slow if a Sin like that was able to get that many hits on her so easily. War was going to have a field day with her when she got back.

But now wasn't the time; she quickly pulled out her cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders to hide her bare skin from any prying eyes and started shuffling through the papers she managed to collect from the house. She quickly scanned the first few to see if there was anything relevant, then she caught the date; less than a week ago.

_It's not my job to keep track of either of them anymore, but I have nothing better to do in the outside world. I keep track of them and try to keep them apart, by they seem to have...mellowed with age though both are still extremely hostile._

_Dark seems to have settled nicely the western part of North America, some place in LA and as far as Anti...well...he's just as far away from Dark as possible and that’s all that’s needed..._

Dark? What the hell kind of name was that? The Sin from before said that Vanity no longer went by Vanity, but there were two names on her that she didn't recognize. She felt like she had seen the name Anti before, but Dark? And LA was a massive city filled with hundreds of thousands of people, it could take her days to find this Dark character and it might not even be Vanity, but what other option did she have? She quickly glanced through the rest of the papers, but all the seemed to talk about was whoever this Anti person which was useless to her. The glow from the house fire was starting to fade showing that the firemen were doing their job of controlling the blaze; it wouldn't be long before the police began searching the area for anyone suspicious. She pulled the hood over her head and quickly made some distance between her and the dying fire as she headed back to the airport.

Back at the burning house, firefighters fought against the roaring flames as police kept the growing crowd back. The people whispered among themselves and asked how this could have happened and asked where the owner was, but the police didn't answer. No one paid attention to the white rat scurrying across the roadway away from the flames and down into the sewers. It fell with a thud onto the concrete ground before it faded into a skinny and frail woman hunched over one of the pipes. Famine gasped for breath and tried to cough up the mass amount of smoke in her lungs, but even though she had sacrificed her host's body to trick the assassin the smoke still seemed to linger even though she didn't have a body.

She knew something was wrong as soon as she answered the door; she _knew_ , but she let her in any way. She knew that she could handle a normal human assassin and she expected someone to find her soon enough anyway, but that wasn't a human. A human couldn't send her flying into the wall so hard that it broke the beams, a human couldn't summon fire from their fingers...

A humans' eyes couldn't turn as black as the night sky...

No... that was a Sin. A well trained and deadly Sin, but who was it? Pyro? Rage? Arson? But it was too young to be any of those. Was it some new beast that War had created? But they seemed so stable and well controlled.

Famine fell into a violent coughing fit and fell to the ground; her chest heaved violently and she dug her nails into the ground as she fought to clear her breathing. A small spotted rat stopped by her hand and carefully sniffed her finger as she tried to even her breathing, but she shooed the creature away.

She needed to get to Dark; she needed to warn him of what was coming. If they were clever enough to find her after so many years of exclusion then they would be able to find him without much difficulty, and if they were going after him then there was a chance that someone was after Anti as well. She trusted both of their skills, but what she had just seen was almost more than she could take but before she could do anything, she needed a new host.

She faded back into the white rat and slowly climbed back up the sewer drain and back out into the world. By now, the fire had mostly died down and police had begun searching and asking questions to figure out how the fire started. She carefully ran underneath everyone's feet until she found a host that would a suitable for the time being. A 60-year-old homeless man standing off by himself watching the last of the fire burn away; even though he was layered against the biting cold, Famine could still tell how malnourished and thin he was simply by looking at his sunken cheekbones. 

She quickly changed from the rat to her actual form before swiftly grabbing the man and kissed him on the lips. She felt him struggle from a split second before he fell limp in her hands. In one quick blink, Famine was in his body as big and lanky as it may be and she shook out her neck and hands. She glanced back behind her to make sure no one saw, and then made her way into town.

It was easy enough to get a phone; slip into one of the bars and pickpocket one of the poor drunks knelt over in the bathrooms. Of course, she got a few sneered looks as she left, but she paid them no mind as she quickly dialed the number.

"Hello?" A deep, but cheerful voice answered; His host for sure.

"Tenebris," she said shortly and the phone broke with static for a split second.

**"It's been a while since I've received a social call from you,"** another voice echoed back. The phone felt heavy in her hands and she could hear the line break with ringing and creaking.

"I'm making a long story short, Dark," she said shortly, "I'm coming to LA."

**"Care to give me a reason at least, Famine?"** The Sin replied.

"Someone just killed my host and asked where you were by the name Vanity," she said harshly, "an assassin by the looks."

**"Then, by all means, let me buy you a ticket to LA,"** he said calmly, **"They asked for Vanity?"**

"That's what worries me," she said, "You haven't gone by Vanity in..."

**"Decades..."** The other man finished for her, **"Could this be War?"**

"That's a possibility," she sighed, "If he's sending someone after you, then he could be sending someone after Anti as well."

**"Good,"** he said harshly and the phone rang loudly, **"Maybe they’ll actually be able to kill the slippery..."**

"Now is not the time," she interrupted him, "Look, I know history isn't the best between you two, but there is something bigger going on here. So, get your ego out of your ass for a few days and suck it up." The other line was silent for a few moments and Famine couldn't tell if he was seething with rage or in shock. If he was wise then he wouldn't say anything.

**"Get me times and dates and I can bring him to LA,"** he finally said calmly, **"But I'm not to blame if a disagreement happens."**

"I'm sure you're not," she answered sarcastically and hung up the phone with a sharp click. She quickly dialed up the next number but wasn't surprised when it rang for a minute before going to voicemail. She left a very brief message as she started to the airport. The phone buzzed in her hand with a message from Dark saying that her ticket to LA had been bough, but her plane wouldn't fly out for the next couple of hours. The least she could do was find a Host more suitable for her while she waited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So bits of this chapter was rewritten so it fit the upcoming chapters and I fixed various grammar mistakes and just tried to make it flow better. I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far because it's about to get real.


	4. Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the blood and gore comes in, so be prepared friendos
> 
> Happy Reading!

She’d been to LA before about 4 years ago and she still hated it just as much as she did then, if not more. The air smelled like smog and sewage and the people were rude and pushy, more than anywhere she’d been to. Of course. She could be just as rude back and if things escalated then the LA river would have one more body rotting at the bottom, and it wouldn’t be hers.

But what now? LA was massive with thousands of people calling this place home. It could take days for here to find even the slightest lead and even then it’d most likely be wrong. Normally, War let her have up to a month before she would receive punishment when she got back. With this hunt though she didn’t want to risk taking that long especially if Vanity was connected to Horseman Famine.

She ended up holing up in the airport coffee shop and somehow managed to find an empty table where she could somewhat spread out all the papers she’d gathered so far. Even though she had read through everything at least twice on the flight over, but she still felt like she was missing something, and it was making her head pound.

“Is this seat taken?” a heavily accented voice asked as she was bent over, stuffing the papers back into her bag.

“No go ahead,” she said pulling out her leather book and opening it up as the stranger sat across from her at the corner of the table. She leaned her head against her hand as she sketched the burning house from Whitby. She’d already finished her sketch of Vanity, at least the type of host he preferred to take anyway. All prim and proper like his name would suggest. She was so lost in her sketch that she didn’t notice the stranger's gaze fall to her book and her artwork, or that they’d even said anything until a small paper ball rolled into her view and broke her concentration.

“Those are really good,” the man said nodding towards her book with both hands wrapped around his coffee. His hair was short and the same color as his brew. His skin was pale as paper; He was from Europe, Ireland by the sound of his accent.

“Oh, thanks,” she said and subconsciously covered the sketches with her hand, “It’s something I do as a hobby more than anything these days,”

“Have you thought about applying to the Arts College here?” he asked taking a quick sip of his drink, “Though I know college pricing here is different than in Europe,” He shrugged.

“I’m not the school type,” she said offhandedly, “I was always bad at learning things,”

“I’m in the same boat,” the man said with a chuckle, “So why are you in LA? Looking for someone?” Alarm bells went off in her head.

“No,” she said forcing the alarms to stay quiet, “I just travel around to places I find interesting. Why’d you think I’m looking for someone?” The man shrugged.

“You’ve got one bag and a map,” he said, “I’ve been binge watching too many detectives shows so that might have been a bit much I’m sorry,” he chuckled again and Arson forced herself to laugh. Suddenly, the man's phone rang as he finished off his drink and he glanced down at the text. She tried to read what it said, but he quickly flipped it over and stood from the table.

“That would be my ride,” he said with a reluctant sigh and she saw a subtle shift in his eyes, “It was nice to meet you, miss?”

“Kya,” she replied answering with the first name that came to her mind. The man nodded his head and briskly walked out of the coffee shop. Arson waited a few minutes before she pocketed her book and quickly followed but she waited too long and the man was already long gone. He seemed far too friendly, but then again, he wasn’t from LA… She needed to remind herself that not everyone was a potential Sin ready to cut her throat and leave her for dead.

She forced herself back to her original task as she pulled her bag over her shoulder and started out the airport. It would take too long to simply stalk the streets at night and hope to find him, so she was going to make him come to her. She’d come up with an idea when she was sketching, but it was incredibly risky and could get out of her control very fast, but it would be the quickest way to draw Vanity out. She bit her lip to hide her grin as she looked to the mountainside.

A few miles away, Famine leaned against a doorway in Dark’s host’s house as the sharply dressed Sin sat in the recliner with his hands folded deep in thought. Another figure sat at the far edge of the room closest to her and furthest away from Dark; Anti sat on the couch but seemed to be more interested in his knife than the conversation.

“ **And you’re sure this assassin was sent by War himself?** ” Dark asked leaning back and looking at Famine.

“This wasn’t a threepenny assassin,” she said with her arms crossed, “I’ve been off the grid for decades now and this girl was well trained. She almost took me down with her own hands multiple times, but she didn’t seem interested in killing me…” She pondered for a moment. Now that she thought about it there was a scene of reluctance in her movements until Famine attacked, but after that, she was ruthless and vicious.

“I don’t think she knew who I was,” she finally said and this made both Sins look up at her in mild surprise, “She just came to me for information and I jumped the gun and attacked,”

I͜f yơu'͠ve b̨e͜e͘n̛ ǫff ͝tḩe g̶r̡i̸d t͏he̕n̨ ̛h͢o͝w̧ ͘did s̡he͝ f̢i̕n̸d҉ ͏yo͏u̧?͝  Anti finally asked.

“They never revoked my access to the Compound, so I took it upon myself to look at the files in the library to see who was still around after all these years,” she said, and she felt Dark’s judgmental stare bore into her skin, “There was someone else there in the library, but they said no one else used it besides them. I couldn’t get a clear feed so I couldn’t tell what they looked like,”

“ **Do you think that’s the little pryo that’s hunting us down?** ” Dark asked, but Famine stayed quiet, “ **Well, either way there no doubt that’s how they were able to track you,** ”

“Agreed,” Famine replied, “and it's likely they’re already here looking for you,”

An͏d͝ ̸h̶o̢w ̨do y̛ou͢ ̧purpos̛e w͡e fin̸d t̕he̢m͘?҉ Anti asked looking back up from his knife before something caught his eye outside the window. Famine followed his gaze just as 2 firetrucks zoomed past the house. Smoke trailed into the sky from the hill outside the city with the tail tale sign of a forest fire.

“ **It seems like they have a plan of their own,** ” Dark said as flames finally became visible above the house line. There was a brief thought that it could have been an accidental fire from a human but judging by how fast it was spreading and how high the flames already were it was clear someone was lighting the brush intentionally, “ **They’re trying to draw us out,”**

“Trying to draw you out,” Famine corrected as sirens filled the air, “She thinks I’m dead and she doesn’t know about Anti…”

**“So what do you purpose?”** the Sin asked as he stood and crossed towards the window beside her.

“If your assassin really is the girl I saw in the library then maybe I can talk to her,” she said, “Something about her just…isn’t adding up,”

**“And if she doesn’t listen and goes straight for your throat?”**

“Then Anti can cut hers before she gets to mine,” she said calmly and once again it caught the virus’s attention, “She has a vague idea of who you are, but she doesn’t know Anti at all. As long as he stays out of sight unless things go wrong then she’d be none the wiser that he would be there,” She glanced back like she was seeking his approval and agreement to the plan, but she’d make him whether he wanted to or not. All he did was lean back on the couch, but a sudden and sharp glitch showed him launching himself forward, knife in hand towards either her or Dark. Either way, she could tell he wasn’t very happy with the idea.

**“They’ll have most of the roads blocked off by now,”** Dark said calmly completely ignoring the glitch, **“Some of the back roads might still be open to evacuate the people living in the hills,”**

“Then that’s our best bet,” She looked back out the window and then turned back to Anti, but he was already standing behind her; His pitch black eyes calmly watching the fire grow high into the sky and send ash raining down, “Let’s go,”

A few hours later and the fire had tripled in size since its start. Most of the people living in the hills had been evacuated and the only people left were firemen trying to control the roaring inferno, but they’d have no luck. This fire was under Arsons control and it would take hundreds of thousands of gallons to put out the flames without her command. Arson herself was dressed in her hunter's outfit, her half-wolf skull mask, and black cloak, and calmly waited for her prey. She sat high above the ground in an oak tree that refused to fall despite its entire body covered in flames and hot embers. She swung her legs playfully as she saw a shadow break through the fire and cough out smoke, but this wasn’t who she was expecting. It was a woman but she looked more skeletal than human. The woman looked around before she looked up and her eyes fell on Arson who still sat calmly on the tree branch with her knife in her lap.

“It’s dangerous to be out here! You need to get to the roads!” the woman shouted, but Arson didn’t believe her for a second. She stared the woman down from under the hood of her mask as the woman cough violently, “Please you need to hurry!”

“You have a lot of disregard for your own life if you run into a raging forest fire in the hopes of saving someone,” Arson shouted down as she stood with the knife dangling from her hand, “I guess it really does take more than a little fire to kill you, Sin,” She could see that the woman’s face fell slightly when she realized her cover was blown, but she didn’t seem to be bothered by it.

“You’re the girl from the library, aren’t you?” she asked, and she felt a chill run up her spine despite the raging heat. She squinted her eyes and gracefully leaped to a lower branch.

“And if I am?” she asked back and kept her eyes sharp for anything hiding in the flames. This woman was staling for time, waiting for someone to get into position.

“I can tell that you don’t want to do this,” the woman said, “If you wanted information from me so badly then you would have simply tortured me until you got it,”

“I like people to remember who I am,”

“And who are you exactly?” the woman asked harshly. Arson gritted her teeth as she leaped down to another branch; Pride cometh before the fall, it was something she had heard the scientist say about War when they thought she wasn’t around, but now it applied to her.

“I’d much rather ask you the same thing,” she asked back, “I found some pretty interesting things in the house in Whitby. Something about a Dark and an Anti?” Then something felt wrong; a fuzzy prickly feeling in her toes and hands that wasn’t there before. The same feeling she got around computers and technology.

“I thought an assassin trained by War himself would be able to put the pieces together much faster than that,” the woman teased and then the pieces clicked together alarmingly fast.

Before she could say anything, a piercing pain shot up her calf and she fell from the tree and landed with a hard thud. It felt like acid was being poured on the wound as she forced herself up and readied her knife, but now she saw another figure standing beside the woman. They were completely clad in black and held a knife of their own with a sick twisted smirk.

“Two against one? This hardly seems fair,” Arson sneered and desperately searched for a way to give herself an advantage.

“Oh, don’t worry I’m not fighting this time around,” the woman said and nodded towards the man beside her, “That’s his job,”

_Oh, joy_ she thought bitterly as she bared her teeth and readied her knife as she waited for him to make the first move. He moved with alarming speed and was on her in a second. She barely had time to trip back as he swiped at her head. He tried again, but she crossed his knife with his and she got a look at his face for the first time. Black, soulless eyes stared her down with the same twisted smile etched on his lips. A massive slice traced along his throat ear to ear and was caked in dried blood.

He broke free of the cross and cut the knife across her wrist, the same burning pain spread across the cut but she refused to cry out or back down. She sliced and forced him back, but he easily dodged her attacks before quickly slice her once more, this time up the chest before kicking her back and sending her flying into a burning tree. It left her wheezing and struggling for breath before she had even noticed that her mask had fallen away as had her knife. Her entire body felt numb and she could barely move as he stalked up to her. She forced herself up and tried to kick towards him, but it was weak and slow and he easily caught her foot and dug his claws into her flesh. She gritted her teeth and ripped her leg back and he pulled out muscle and skin with it. She weakly swung again with her bare fist and he caught her once again but did nothing to attack her.

Wh̕y̸ wo̡n̨'t y̕o҉u̶ ju͡st giv͏e͏ ͡u͢p? he growled and she couldn’t help but grin.

“Why? Gettin’ tired?” she taunted with a toothy grin. She took advantage of the distraction and clawed the side of his neck. He managed one last hit and lodged his knife into the side of her chest and the world went white.

A loud crack, almost like lightning, split the air and the massive oak tree finally fell to the ground right between them. Arson fell back no longer able to fight with her injuries and tried to free the knife from her side, but it refused to budge. She really was going to die if she didn’t get the hell out of here. From out of the corner of her eye she saw the man standing on one of the partially unburned sections. She could see blood flowing from the gash on the side of his neck, but now he didn’t look pissed or crazy like he did before. Now he simply looked… stunned though it was hard to tell with all the smoke in the air.

She pushed herself back, but suddenly she was falling backward down a steep hill and into an outcrop of sharp rocks. Ignoring the pain as best she could, she pulled herself back up and fled deeper into the burning woods. Famine quickly joined Anti atop the burning tree hoping to see the dead body of the assassin but saw nothing but a pool of quickly evaporating blood.

 S̛he̛'͟s͢ ̴şt̸r͞on͏g͝e͞r̴ ̕th҉a̴n I̢ t̷h̢o͏u͡g͝h̴t..̸.̧ Anti said as he wiped the blood from his neck.

“She shouldn’t be able to go far with the injuries she has,” Famine said and stepped down from the log, “She shouldn't be hard to track down and kill now,”

E̕ve̷n w͟i̕ţh ̷my̨ ͠k̡nife ̛w̡o̢unds and com̧p͝letel̶y u͏n͝armed̛ she̵ sti͠ll f̷o͜ugh̵t b͞ac̡k he stated sh͘e'll̛ ͠do̸ t̨h̢e̢ ̷s҉a͞m̧e͠ ̴w̡hen ͢we͘ ̶cor̨ner heŗ agąi̡n͠

 “Not when it’s all three of us against her,” she said, “We’ll call Dark when we find her again then we’ll put her out of her misery,”

Arson didn’t know how she was able to stay out of sight as she tried to run away or how she was able to keep upright for so long, but once she made it out of the fire and down the hills to the docks was when she finally collapsed at some type of shipping dock. Her cuts still bled profusely, and the knife was still lodged in her side; Every breath felt like a thousand wasps had been set loose in her lungs and were desperately trying to get free. She didn’t think War could ever replicate pain such as this.

Something told her something was wrong, someone was coming and part of her didn’t even want to bother anymore. Still, something forced her body to move as much as it protested. She leaned heavily against the cargo crates and limped in a random direction; If she was going to die fighting she wasn’t going to be ambushed.

Famine was the first to notice her slowly limp out of the small maze of crates and the three of them stopped and waited for her to make the first move. Her skin was burned with fleshy red and pink scars and a portion of her clothes had burned away. Anti’s knife was still buried in her flesh with clear signs of her trying to pull it out and her gashes from his knife had begun to rot black.

**“This was the assassin War sent after me?”** Dark taunted, **“He must be getting desperate if he’s training a child Sin to take out his enemies,”**

“Maybe you’re right,” she wheezed and a thin trail of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. She stumbled and struggled to keep her balance, “But I still managed to get the one up on a Horseman didn’t I?” Dark fell silent.

“You’re awfully brave to keep fighting, child,” Famine said, “Especially in a three on one fight,” Famine felt pity for the girl, she really did. She doubted the girl knew why she was hunting down and killing who she was, but she seemed to know what she was talking about so far but War’s minions were notoriously good at bullshitting

“I’m not going to lay down and die like a dog,” she said harshly, but she could hear the slightest hint of fear in her voice, “A worse…” she shook her head, “I’m better than that.”

**“Then let’s get it over with,”** Dark said as he drew his gun and aimed at her head. She stared him down before pulling up a wall of fire as he pulled the trigger. The heat from the fire melted the bullet before it even had a chance to reach her. Dark fired off another round of shots as Famine and Anti rushed her. She parred Anti’s and tried to dodge Famine’s attack as best she could but was to slow and it cut deep into her back. She coated her hand in flames and desperately clawed at Famine just managing to nick her arm. Both of them stumbled back as she swooned to stay on her feet, but Famine saw an eerily familiar expression on her face as she desperately fought to keep Famine and Anti back and keep Dark’s bullets from hitting her. Her teeth were bared in an animalistic nature and her eyes were pitch black. She was fighting like an animal; desperate and insane.

She cried out and stumbled back as her shoulder busted open with blood and tissue. She’d missed a bullet and Dark had hit his mark. Anti took the advantage and sent a flurry of deep cuts up her side before kicking her towards Famine. She disregarded her sickle and grabbed the girl by her arm, twisted around, and brought it down hard on her shoulder with a loud crack. The girl screamed in pain before Famine twisted her around until her back was to the shipping crates and kicked her square in the chest. She felt the girl chest cavity cave into her kick and she was sent flying back into the crate leaving a massive dent. The three of them stood for a moment waiting for her to get up and attack once more, but her body was completely still as her head rolled to the side.

Famine was the first to approach her with her sickle at her side, but she knew there was no way the girl was still alive. She knelt down and grabbed the girls chin to examine her head and to her amazement, she felt the faintest flutter of a pulse under her skin and she heard her wheeze pathetically from her caved in chest cavity, but there was no other sign of life in her body.

Famine quickly grabbed the girls knife and looped it through her belt as she grabbed the girl by her one good arm and hoisted her onto her shoulders; she didn’t even make a sound despite Famine’s shoulders sinking into her chest.

Jus̢t͘ ҉l̛ea̷ve her̛ for͡ ͠t͞h͜e ̡hu̵m̶ans t̶o ͘f͜i̴nd͏ Anti said as him and Dark watched her walk towards them S̵hę's̨ n͠o̸t͜ o̷u͢r pr͢ob̷l̨ȩm̧ ̧any̢mor͢e. Famine simple gave him a stern look. He stared right back and swiftly pulled his knife from her side and began looking it over.

“May I use your basement Dark?” Famine asked kindly, but both Sins knew that it was a command and not a question. Famine asking for something was a dangerous sign that there was something bigger going on than the other two Sins realized. Dark simply nodded and the three made their way back to the house.

The basement was little more than a laundry room with concrete walls and floors and a small storage room off to the side, but it was enough for Famine. She set up a metal table and a light and that was really all she needed. She carefully laid the girls body on the table, but she still had yet to show any sign of waking up. Dark and Anti watched from opposite sides of the room as she cut away the girls bloody clothing and wrapped her chest and hips with a towel to keep her covered, by now that she was laying out in the light bare skinned they saw just how much damage she had. Her chest dipped at a strange angle and had strange bumps from bones that hadn’t broken, her entire body was covered in fleshy pink burn scars along with a mix of old and new cuts. Her arm twisted strangely at a 90-degree angle and her shoulder still oozed blood; if Famine looked close enough she could see the silver bullet lodged in her shoulder slowly eating away at the bone.

**“She can’t be alive,”** Dark said definitely, **“She looks worse then what half of the serial killers in LA do to their victims,”**

“You forget that she’s a Sin,” Famine replied as she ran her hand across one of the wounds Anti gave her, the one on her chest, “We aren’t easy to kill, but even then…” Famine stayed quiet. There were things she had yet to tell Dark and Anti, both to make things easier and to keep them safe, but it looked like now she’d have to tell them everything soon.

“Leave,” Famine ordered sharply, “Anti, leave her knife and yours.” That was the last thing she said to them as the pair left her alone with the girl's body and two knives. She flipped open her cell phone and dialed up a number and crossed her fingers that it still worked.

_“Hello?”_ a heavy voice answered, and Famine breathed a sigh of relief.

“Greed,” Famine said simply, “It’s been a while since I’ve had the displeasure of hearing your voice,”

_“Famine,”_ the voice replied simply, _“I see something has forced you out of hiding at last. I can only assume you called to cash in that favor,”_

“Only if you don’t feel like wondering the void for eternity,” she said calmly, but there was venom in her words.

_“You’ve been spreading too much time babysitting that mistake of yours,”_ he said sharply, _“It’s a bad influence on such a once elegant Horseman…”_

“LA Airport. Earliest flight out you can find. I’ll be waiting for you in a black car,” she cut him off and then cut the call. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair as she looked back down at the girl. She had the bigger pieces of the girl's puzzle together now, but now she realized that one word from their conversation seemed to fit her to a T so far.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man Arson can really take a beating, can't she? I'm gonna say this now before people start snapping about inaccuracies and unlikely hood of survival with her type of injuries, but Sins can take a lot more damage than normal humans plus you have Anti with his slit throat and Dark with his gunshot from WKM and other impossible scenarios will come into play soon. Just remember that these guys are quite beastly and can take a beating.


	5. Fog

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot tHiCkEnS

All she could register was a cold pitch black that seemed to surround her and threaten to swallow her whole. There was nothing else; She couldn't move, she couldn't see light, and she couldn't feel anything other than the biting chill on her skin. It brought her ease at first, but the longer she drifted the more she longed to feel something.

 She ended up getting her wish. She began to feel a light pressure build inside her skull before it would disappear and then reappear again a few moments later. It was oddly hypnotic in nature and was a welcome distraction. She felt at peace, like at the rare times where she was alone in… alone in…

 She stitched her eyebrows together. She couldn't remember where she'd felt this before, but she swore that she did. It was like a tip of the tongue situation, but it was like her brain was in some kind of fog. It was oddly comforting, but something told her that this wasn't right. Once she noticed it, she was slowly getting pulled deeper and deeper into the rhythmic pressure and comforting fog until soon it felt like it was all she had ever known.

_Fight. Fight. Fight_. Something urged in her chest, but she ignored it. She felt too heavy, like her blood had been replaced with lead. She just wanted to stay in this comforting darkness and fog, her home… Everything felt peaceful and silent here.

_"Alright,"_ a man's voice said, but his voice was muffled and sounded like he was trying to speak through water or a concrete wall, _"Is she good enough for you to work on now?"_ She felt her body drift through the fog and something touched her neck, but all she felt was a wave of static like numbness.

_"What the hell did you do?!?"_ a woman's voice said but it too was muffled. The tingling went away, and she felt the fog shift around her; Her eyes lazily watched the wisps dance in the darkness.

_"She's as meek as a lamb now,"_ the man answered _, "You shouldn't have any problems with…"_

_"I didn't want her for her body!"_ the woman cried through the fog. She heard a very faint thud, and someone cried out, _"You stupid fucking…_

_"You never told me what you wanted!"_ the man screamed, _"I just did what I thought you wanted!"_

_"Oh I'll tell you what I want…"_ the woman said darkly. There was more shuffling of the fog and a hard thud then everything went silent. She floated for a minute before she felt the numbness return to her neck and a cold chill snake down her spine.

_"What did he do to you?"_ the woman's voice asked soft and sweet almost motherly in a way. It sounded clearer now, less muted and soft _, "I hope he didn't do any permanent damage…"_ Suddenly, the fog shifted and she felt herself hit hard on the floor. Like a train had crashed into her at full force, the numbness was gone replaced with excruciating pain. She tried to breathe, but it was as if the train had stopped on her chest and had been loaded with thousands of pounds of brick. She began to panic and struggled the invisible weight on her chest.

Suddenly, her lungs were flooded with cold refreshing air and like water over hot embers she felt the pain ease. It was only a little but she was still grateful none the less. Her chest rose and fell on its own and she fell limp completely exhausted from…everything.

_"Well,"_ the woman's voice said _, "You're still responsive at least…"_ She didn't even know who this woman was and she already didn't like her. She wanted her fog and numbness back, she wanted her silence again.

There was a deep puff of air into her chest and she saw the darkness begin to fade into a pale grey. Another puff and she felt her hands involuntarily clench and shake. One more and she felt a cool breeze drift over her skin and she could hear the quiet chink and clang of machinery. She forced her eyes open expecting to see the fading darkness, but it was a faded yellow light hanging over her; A ceiling lamp. She was…awake.

"Welcome back," she heard the woman say and her eyes drifted towards her directions. A woman, more bone than skin, stood by a bloodied surgical tray covered in blood and bits of flesh. Her face was sunken in deep and her shoulders jutted out at sharp angles, her skin was a sickly pale grey. She tried to say something, but her mouth closed around something sticking out of her throat. She gagged and tried to pull it out, but the woman quickly grabbed her hand and pulled it back down.

"If you want to keep breathing then it's probably best you keep that it for a bit until you can on your own," she said with a strange almost sad smile. She narrowed her eyes and gagged weakly before laying her head back and staring at the light swinging above her.

"Do you know where you're at?" the woman asked, but she stared silently at the light.

"Do you know how you got here?" Again she didn't reply; The light was beginning to hurt her eyes, but if she focused hard enough she could feel its faint heat on her arms and stomach.

"What is your name?" she asked, and her eyes went wide. Suddenly she was hearing a mass of different voices, some were shouting some crying and some even whispering but they all said the same thing. **_Arson._** She closed her eyes, but the phantom of the light still appeared in her vision. Yeah, Arson felt right…

Famine knew she wasn't going to really get an answer from the assassin, so she stayed quiet when she closed her eyes and eventually fell back into what was most likely a pain filled sleep. The tube down her throat would keep her from speaking for at least a few hours until she was sure her body would do the action automatically. When she had first removed the tube after slaughtering Greed, the woman stopped breathing altogether and Famine struggled to keep her from thrashing about while she reinserted the tube. Her chest had been mostly fixed but would leave a nasty scar and she'd set off every metal detector within a two-mile area until her body absorbed the metal when her breastplate healed. As for her other wounds, the only one that would cause any concern was the stab wound in the side of her chest from Anti's knife. The skin and flesh around the wound had already begun to corrode by the time they found her in the shipyard and it had grown to a grapefruit sized hole when Greed finally arrived.

**"How are our guests doing?"** Dark asked casting a quick glance at Greed's body dead on the ground **, "I see Greed is enjoying himself,"**

"He'll be fine," Famine dismissed him with a wave, "His chest would make a nice flower pot for bluebells though if you're interested,"

**"I'm afraid I'll have to pass that opportunity,"** he said and walked up beside his assassin’s makeshift hospital bed **, "How about Miss Pyro?"**

"Alive," she said, "But she might not ever be able to have coherent thoughts again,"

**"Is that a bad thing?"** he asked and grabbed her chin and turned her head over. She didn't flinch or react, **"Why did you want to keep her alive so badly?"**

"I have my reasons," she said simply, and the conversation ended there. He pulled a section of her hair that was caked with blood and saw sewed skin with clear almost silver like thread. He glanced towards Famine with a raised eyebrow and she sighed deeply.

"Like I said," she groaned and carefully trace her fingers along the sutures, "She might not be coherent when she wakes up,"

**"It's not like we haven't dealt with mentally ill morons before,"** he growled and she didn't need to ask who he was referring to, **"If she doesn't give you what you want, whatever it is, then we kill her. Simple as that,"** Famine didn't say anything and watched her hands tremble and shake like a leaf in a storm.

She drifted in and out of consciousness for a few hours, but to Arson, it felt like days. She was glad to be back in the fog but now things felt wrong. She could feel people walking around her and sometimes she felt the static of someone touching her some more painful than others. At some point, she did wake back up but she was alone in the small concrete room. She still had the tube down her throat pumping her lungs full of air, but she felt more awake and aware.

Everything. Fucking. Hurt. Way more than when she woke up the first time. An acid burn like pain burrowed in her side and her foot throbbed in a way that felt as if a rabid dog had been chewing on it. What the hell had happened?

W̢as a͜fria͟d҉ ̸y͘ơu d͞ięd͞ i͘n y͜ơur͝ ͢sl͠e̢e͠p a voice popped and cracked. Anti had taken care of his own injuries and had a bandage around her neck. Famine went out to get more medical supplies and asked Dark to show her the best (and cheapest) place to get them, leaving Anti alone in the massive house. He watched the girl gag and her chest heaved. She bit down around the tubing and laid her head back.

Yo̸u'r͞e͟ i͘n p͏a̸in he stated and the woman snorted or gagged again, he couldn't really tell. They were taking a risk not tying her down, but according to Famine she was barely able to breathe anymore and would probably just stare at them like a vegetable; As harmless as a fly, yeah right, he'd heard that before.

He stepped up beside the table and looked down at her and she looked back at him half eyed stare. He narrowed his eyes but she simply rolled her head to the side and her face scrunched up in obvious pain. Her eyes drifted to the wall and he noticed that her eyes had seemed to change from the tar-black from the shipyard to a strange dark, almost royal, blue color.

**"Waiting till we were gone to slit her throat I see,"** Dark said as he and Famine walked down the stairs, **"Revenge isn't really your style Anti,"**

A̡n͡d̢ wh҉at͜ ͠is m͟y st̶ylę the͝n̷?͘ he growled at the Sin, but Famine stepped in between them effectively cutting off the bickering.

"If you're going to act like children do it outside away from me," she said and sat the plastic bag down on the table beside the woman, "I'm busy," both men bit their tongues and watched her begin to work.

"Feeling any better?" the woman asked her, and Arson let out a muffled cough, "Let's see if we can get this tube out." She barely saw what the woman did before suddenly she felt her slender fingers reach down her throat and something that felt like a massive snake be pulled free from her mouth. She coughed, and something sputtered from her lips and onto the woman's shirt, deep red blood, her blood. Her chest heaved, and she felt some trickle down the back of her throat and she forced herself not to cough again. Her lungs burned, but now she could breathe on her own.

"Good," the woman said and wiped stray drops of blood from her face, "Now, let's answer some questions,"

"Who the hell are you?" she asked harshly with not an ounce of patience. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out beside a wet gurgle. She reached over and grabbed an old pen and sheet of paper and laid in on the table beside her. She tried her best to keep her hand steady.

"Arson," the woman read and she saw her glance over to her counterparts, "Well Arson, do you know where you are?" She shook her head slightly and the woman nodded her head.

"Do you know what happened?" she asked and again she shook her head, "Do you know…anything?" She shook her head and the woman sighed and rubbed her face further smearing blood across her face. Was she supposed to know something? Because she certainly had no idea who these people were.

"Well, I guess we better get to introductions then," she forced out with a thin smile, "My name's Famine, the man by the door is Dark, and…"

**"The silent psychopath hiding in the corner is Anti,"** Dark finished for her and cast a glare the man's direction. Her ears started to ring and her wounds began to throb.

"Children…" she said threateningly, and the ringing and pain fell silent, "Not in front of our guest," the way she smiled sent a shiver down her spine and seemed to be able to silence even the loudest of rooms.

"Now, let's see if we can get you someplace better to recover," she cast a glare towards Darks direction as she snaked her arm under Arsons waist and gently started sitting her up. Her head pounded and a building pressure just behind her eyes threatened to pop them out of her skull, but soon she was sitting upright.

"Let's get you upstairs," Famine continued, and they began the slow and painful climb up the stairs and into a guest room. The sheets stuck on her stitchings and the fabric was rough on her skin, but it was only once she was under them that she noticed just how cold she was. None of them stayed to held her adjust herself once she got into the bed and simply left and she didn't mind, though she was discovering new pains and injuries having to twist and turn to get comfortable.

It took her a minute before she sank back into the voided darkness, but it was different this time. Now instead of the peaceful numbness, there was a sense of unease like someone was watching her from just beyond the fog. Eventually, the uneasiness disappeared, replaced by heaviness and throbbing from her wounds. It wasn't long after that before the fog swallowed her up and she melted away.

Famine had walked in to check on her an hour after they got her into the room and found her fast asleep under the massive comforter. Anti stood silently by the doorway as she walked up and checked her vitals. Everything was fine aside from the icy chill her skin had, but Famine waved it off to blood loss.

"Do you think she's faking it?" Famine asked and lightly prodded the incision in her temple. Her face scrunched in pain and she struggled to roll away from the discomfort.

Wh͜y̶ ar͘e ̕yo̕u ̢asking͞ ͏me? He asked and crossed his arms. His eyes black eyes gazing at her as she traced a line down another one of her wounds.

"You've always been better at sniffing out bullshit than the rest of us," she said, "Figured I'd get an experts opinion,"

How ̸v̕ery̨ ͏k͡i͏n̡d.͠.. he sneered and fell silent, not an answer she wanted.

"Kind of familiar isn't it?" she asked her voice sweetened like honey and she saw Anti glance up at her from the doorway, "She's got no memory at all, not a clue who she is or what her purpose is…"

Do̷n'̢t̷  he growled and Famine grinned to herself as she dug a nail into a small gap in one of her stitchings making Arson squirm under the sheets. She felt the hair on her arms prickle with static.

"It's only an observation," she said sweetly and looked towards him as she pulled her nail out. Anti was staring, no, glaring at her and she could feel every ounce of hate and anger poured into his gaze. His silhouette glitched and jerked about, but he never fully cracked into a full glitch. She wiped her finger and walked past him out the door and left him alone in the room.

He knew Famine's endgame in all of this because she only ever really had two goals in this world: Learn as much as she could about everything, and find out what made him tick and twitch, and for some reason she thought this girl could do just that, though he couldn't really see any obvious connections besides…

He bit the inside of his cheek so hard he tasted blood. No, she was just doing this to force a reaction like always, but he wasn't going to. At some point, she was going to get bored of him and finally let him go and he hoped that would be soon, maybe this girl could be his replacement.

He stalked out the room and quietly down the backdoor stairs, so he wouldn't be heard. He didn't want to be around any other them, Famine, Dark, or Arson. Right now, he just wanted to find some poor bastard and make him pay for something that wasn't even his fault.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we have the biggest medical inaccuracy in this story and it probably one of the biggest thinbgs that actually happens. I know that that type of operation pretty much leaves the patient completely void of any and all emotion, but for this case I had it erase Arson memory. I tried to keep the rest of it accurate (I had to watch videos on this shit and I think I might want one now) so forgive me medical nazis if I have offended thee.
> 
> Anywho! We get to see some true colors pop out in this chapter from everyone. Famine "killed" Greed and is quickly losing patients with Arson and everyone else. Let me know what y'all think is going to happen next chapter! I'm curious to know c:


	6. Chapter 6

                She woke up with a jolt in a cold sweat. Her eyes searched wildly in the pitch-black room for the phantom that had chased her deep into the void. A lion with its main coated in flames and its fangs dripping blood, its body was covered with deep scars and sharp yellow eyes filled with hate and rage bore into her soul.

                _Fucking error!_ The beast roared and pinned her to the ground _I should have killed you before you took your first breath!_ Its jaws clamped around her throat and she felt its fangs puncture her windpipe, then she woke up.

                She stayed sitting up on the bed for a while with her knees drawn to her chest trying to forget the feeling of her throat being crushed in the beast's jaws. Sitting this way was making her other wounds burn, but soon she started focusing on that instead of the phantom feeling. Sleep wasn’t going to happen again, at least, not for a while. She might as well try to do something.

                She slowly swung her legs off the bed and stood with the support of the dresser beside the bed. Her foot throbbed to the beat of her pulse and she gently applied weight onto it, she bit her lips from crying out in pain. She gave heavily and slowly limped towards the door.

                The house was silent and illuminated by the street lamps outside and something glowed softly in the distance far past the hills. Arson hung close to the wall until she came to the main living room and the pain forced her to sit down. Tears brimmed her eyes as she pulled her foot into her lap; The bandage was completely stained with blood and was wet to the touch.

                Suddenly, she heard a door click shut and she instinctively sunk down to keep from being seen. She listened as footsteps fell softly against the carpet and then rounded into the kitchen. She heard the tap turn on and something metal clink into the sink. She dared to peek over the armrest and saw that other man, Anti, covered in an alarming amount of blood and calmly washing something off in the sink.

                He turned off the water and turned to grab something but saw her before she could duck back down. She expected to be yelled at and dragged back to her room, but instead, he just watched her like he had before.

                W͞h͞at are y͢o͏u ̧d͞o̧i̸ng a͟w͞ak̵e?̕  he asked with surprising quietness. She slowly sat back up and he stepped out of the kitchen and into the living room. His face didn’t reflect the quietness and softness of his voice, but when he saw her bloodied bandages his face fell slightly.

                Anti made sure to move slower and speaker quieter if not to scare her then to not wake Famine and Dark. The bandaging protecting her foot was soaked through completely and he could smell it before he even got near her. He knelt down at the edge of the couch, but she pulled herself back.

                I̷ just ̵waņt ̷t͞o͘ s̸ee͘ ̶what you'͢ve ̶don̨e ̧t̷o͘ i̕t͜ he said and she looked down at him absolutely scared out of her mind. He watched her consider his words then slowly lower her foot back down. He slowly began to unwrap the soaked bandage. She whined quietly and curled her toes in pain as he peeled it off the skin. Fresh blood poured from the gashes and he saw that they hadn’t stitched up her foot. The flesh was beginning to turn black from the amount of trauma it had suffered and the effect his claws tended to have on human flesh. He was surprised it wasn’t already infected.

                I̸ don't ̵th̨i̸nk ̷h͘e ̴e̢ve͝n cle͡ane҉d t̸h̕i͘s̴ li͜ke ͠h̢e͜ w͡as͏ s͜u̶p͝p͘o͘sed t̛o͘ he said aloud and gently tested one of the lesser gashes, he saw that she tried to hide her pain, but she didn’t do a very good job. He went back to the kitchen and grabbed a wet cloth and began to clean away the blood and puss as gently as he could. Once that was done, he grabbed the small travel bag he brought and started sorting through the vague medical supplies he kept on him. It wasn’t uncommon for him to bite off more than he could chew which often led to him having to stitch together his own wounds, so he always had basic supplies nearby. Now was the fun part…

                He glanced up at her and saw she had her hands curled into fists and bit hard into her knuckles, a thin line of red tears threatened to spill from her eyes. He took a breath and stuck the needle into her skin and began to sew the gashes back together, but with three decent sized gashes, it was going to take a minute. Every so often he would glance up and see her face twisted in pain with red tears streaming down her face. He stayed quiet and focused on the task at hand.

                When he finished up the last stitch, he grabbed the wet cloth and wiped away the fresh drops of blood that had beaded up then he pulled out a small bottle from his bag, cracked it open, and handed her two pills. He had no doubt that Famine didn’t give her any pain medicine and he knew first hand just how painful his knife and claws could be.

                She gladly took them as soon as he offered them and swallowed them dry. She probably shouldn’t be accepting strange pills from green haired men covered in blood, but by god, if this shit didn’t hurt and he hadn’t activity done anything to hurt her so far. He was helping her, more than anyone else had at least.

                She quickly started feeling groggy as he wrapped up her foot and tied it neatly behind her ankle. She rolled her foot and flexed her toes and was immensely grateful when she felt much less pain than before. She opened her mouth to thank him, but the same dry raspy sound came out.

                Y҉eah ҉I k̡n̛o̕w͟  he said dismissively and stood up, his joints cracked. She pushed herself up and swooned when pressure began building behind her eyes. Her vision faded, but she felt her grab her arm to steady her; She felt a staticky numbness spread up her arm.

                Y̕ou̷ ͡n͘ee̢d̸ ̴to͢ ͟g͏o ba̵ck an͝d ҉r̸e͠st he said sternly but still kept his voice quiet I'm ̛n̷ot st҉itc͝hing ҉y͝o̸u b̴ac̡k ̕u̡p̛ Arson frowned and shook her head. She didn’t want to even try to go back to sleep if there was a chance that beast was going to chase her again, but Anti didn’t want to argue the matter. He’d done his good deed for the month and wasn’t going to do anymore even if he knew that she really needed to rest.

                Sui̴t̵ y͜ou̧r͟s̴el͡f ̧t̴he͝n he shrugged, packed up his bag, and slid it over to the corner. He turned and left her in the living room and he walked into another room and clicked the door shut. Arson rubbed her arm and sat back down on the couch. She tucked her knees to her chest and laid on her side and watched the soft glow of…whatever that was in the distance. A sense of loneliness sat on her shoulders, longing for something but she couldn’t remember what. It was something different then this she knew that, and it almost hurt that she didn’t know.

                She hated that she couldn’t remember what had happened. All she knew was the void and fog and then she just woke up, she didn’t know these people, she barely knew who she was. Now the only place she could find peace and comfort was being taken away and these people had no love for her. What the hell did she do?

                She didn’t fall back asleep that night. She stayed up and listened to the sounds of the house and watched the world move outside, she tried to dig up something…anything from her past but it was all blank and fuzzy. She heard a door open and footsteps walk her direction, but these were different than before. She lifted her head and saw Famine round the couch.

                “What are you doing out here?” she asked sternly, but her voice was heavy with sleep. Arson sat up, but Famine grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her up. She yelped in pain as the woman pulled her back into her room, her nails were digging into her arm and was making her move in a way that forced her to use her bad foot. She glared the woman down when she sat her down on the bed.

                “It’s tough love, sweetheart,” she said with a thin smile, “You won’t get better if you don’t rest,” Arson snorted to show her annoyance, but Famine simply turned and walked out. The door locked behind her and she was left alone once more. She heard muffled voices from the other side, but it was impossible to understand what they were saying, it was probably about her if she had to guess. Either way, now she couldn’t go anywhere or do anything, she could, and probably should, try and go back to sleep. She curled up on the floor because she didn’t want to deal with the irritation the sheets gave her wounds and eventually forced herself to drift away and prayed it would be somewhat peaceful.

                She woke up with bright sunlight streaming through the window onto her back and a loud thud against the walls. Arson laid still for a moment making sure it wasn’t just her imagination, but then she heard it again much louder than before along with the sound of glass breaking. She pulled herself up and limped to the door.

                “Both of you stop!” Famine shouted but it fell on deaf ears. Dark had Anti pinned to the ground with his fist pulled back ready to punch, but Anti glitched out from under him and sliced up the Sin’s back. Dark retaliated, grabbed a lamp, and smashed it against his skull. Famine tried to step in between the two to break them up, but once they got into it they wouldn’t stop until one was dead or one stepped down, and they both were too prideful for that.

                Anti launched himself towards Dark once more, but Famine stepped in with her scythe just as Dark drew his gun. She cut across Dark’s stomach and then spun and quick cut across Anti’s throat, the two places guaranteed to stop both men in their tracks. Both men stumbled back but Famine knew if she didn’t get them away from each other they’d be right back at it.

                “Back. Now.” She said threateningly with her weapon drawn towards Anti. The man eyes were sharp and pitch black and his glitches were borderline out of control. Blood poured from the fresh slit in his throat.

                **“Better listen to her Glitch,”** Dark growled and Famine saw his eyes glare forward and his body tense ready to jump, but then his wound kicked in. The glitches turned from attacks towards her and Dark to self-inflicted attacks; he dug his claws into his throat and pulled at his hair and held his knife to his neck.

                “Get back Anti,” Famine said sternly and he took a small step back, “I’ll deal with you later,” He narrowed his eyes and then sulked back to his room. Famine lowered her weapon and turned to Dark who had calmed down now that Anti had left and had begun nursing the various wounds Anti gave him.

                “Come on,” she said and the two of them went down to the basement to stitch his wounds.

                Arson knew the smell of blood anywhere. That coppery metallic scent cut through the air and she knew she _had_ to get out of the room. First, she tested the door and sure enough, it was solid and sturdy, maybe if she wasn’t so wounded she’d be able to knock it down but she couldn’t in the state she was in. Next, she tried the window but it too was locked and it was quite the drop to the ground. An idea popped into her head when she spied a forgotten bobby pin.

                _“Never underestimate the power of a bobby pin, my love,”_ a voice whispered softly, and Arson felt a cold chill brush across her skin. She shook her head and tried to rid her mind of the phantom voice as she went to work, her fingers guided by pure muscle movement alone. There was a soft click and the door slowly inched open and she peered her head out. No one was in the main room, but the smell of blood was much much stronger now.

                Something fell to the floor the next room over and she heard something scratch the wall. She limped along the wall and saw an alarming amount of blood pooled on the carpet leading into one of the other guest rooms. She slowly pushed open the door…

                A chair launched towards her head and she barely had time to dive into the room before it crashed into the wall and fell on top of her.

                G̢̨͞E̸͡T̨͝͞ ̴̸͏͟O͞҉͘͝U̸͝T̷̡̡̨̛ a voice screeched making her ears ring. She looked up and saw Anti pacing at the other end of the room glitching wildly. His neck was dripping blood and every so often he would claw at the padded wall leaving long jagged marks. The air felt alive with electricity and static and she felt the small metal bolts shock her from the chair. Something screamed for her to run and get away from whatever the hell was happening to him, but she stayed coward under the chair and watched. He would tremble and glitch violently anytime he brought his hand up to his throat to try and stop the bleeding and she clicked the pieces together.

                She crawled back out into the hallway and quickly limped to the living room. She quickly hoisted his bag over her shoulder and paused before going back into the room, debating whether to grab a wet rag. She thought better of it a slowly walked back in.

                His head snapped to her immediately and she expected something to be thrown again, but instead, he tried his hardest to stay still. His mind was screaming for blood but a quick glitch, digging his nails further into his throat and the feeling was satisfied for now. She limped forward and handed him the bag with an outstretched hand. Anti’s breathing was sporadic, and he could feel crazed laughter bubbling just beneath his breath; He just needed to grab the bag and that was it.

                A small spark of lightning jumped from his hand to hers as he snatched the bag from her grasp and retreated to the corner. Her mind went fuzzy, but it was otherwise unpainful. She sat on the floor as she was confident that she wouldn’t be pelted with flying chairs. She watched him quickly dig through the bag for a clean rag before holding it up to his neck. It quickly became soaked in blood, but he was already prepared with another rag and then another one. He went through four rags before the bleed began to ease up and another two before it stopped soaking through the cloth. He pulled large butterfly bandages and started securing the split skin back together. Why he wasn’t stitching it like he had her foot last night was beyond her, but she didn’t ask.

                **“How did you get out?”** he asked, but now his voice sounded much different than before; gentler almost, **“Famine locked you in because you were still in the living room when she woke up,”** He glanced over to her as she pulled the bobby pin out from her hair and hold it out with a proud smirk. Anti snorted as he dug into his bag for the gauze and wrap.

                **“Clever bird,”** he said with a smirk, **“You always that resourceful or was that just luck?”** Arson shrugged. “A bit a both” is what he took her answer to be. He glitched hard as he began to wrap the gauze tight around his neck to keep it from bleeding out again and to his surprise she didn’t fall back in fear or even flinch away. She squinted her eyes in curiosity like he was some kind of strange bug she’d found outside. Whether it was her lack of memory, or maybe it was just how she was naturally, she seemed passive and almost playful in a way. Anti hadn’t met many other sins, but the few he had met didn't act anything like her.

                Maybe that was the fun part about botched lobotomies. Completely change the person then throw them into Hell because that was sure what they had done to her.

                 


	7. SOS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ain't dead I promise, but finals are a bitch and I'm busy with graduation prep and this chapter was a bit tricky to write. Just a bit of writer's block, but here it is!
> 
> Happy reading! (and study for your finals after this for god sake children)

                Famine decided it best if Arson stayed with her until final decisions were made on what to do with her. No one objected it wasn’t like she had anywhere else to go. Dark and Anti weren’t caretakers and Famine had experience in “raising” Sins until they could take care of themselves. Arson didn’t seem to have much of an opinion on the matter, but even if she did it wouldn’t have mattered. Three days after the fight and Famine, Anti, and Arson stood just past the security checkpoint in the LA international airport.

                “This is where we part ways,” she said as they started to spilt off towards their terminals. Famine didn’t have any luggage, but Arson held a small black duffle bag various stolen clothes and wore and big black jacket to hide the rest of her injuries. She had the hood pulled up and it swallowed her head and hid her eyes, but ever so often she would tilt her head up to look around and he would catch a glimpse of her face.

                “Ca̡n͟’̷t ̶sa̛y̸ I̶’m s̕ad̴ t͞o̸ s̴e͠e y̸ou͞ go,” he said, and Famine grunted in agreement. The Horseman had been annoyed with him since his and Darks fight and gave him the cold shoulder and silent treatment ever since. It didn’t bother him at all, he preferred solitude to socialization and only went out during the night. He didn’t see anyone in the house save for the few times Arson would be up during the night in the living room or would somehow sneak into his room and be hidden in the corner. She didn’t seem to care much for their company either and stayed off by herself as well; Anti enjoyed her company, as much as you could with a mute person.

                Something pulled away Famine’s attention, a tourist family asking for directions, and Arson shuffled closer to him. He’d quickly picked up that she wasn’t a big fan of crowds and large spaces; Her head snapped up when the overhead speaker snapped on.

                “Y̢ou̧ c̶a̵n̷’̡t̷ be̡ s͏o s͘kitt͢i̶s͜h̕,” he lightly scolded her and she looked up at him, “you̷’ļl n̵eve̢r ͢m̢a͟k͝e ͜įt͜ on ͜y͢o҉ur͞ ̕ow̡n if ͠you’r͠e̛ s̢ca̶re͢d shi̵tle̛ss̢ ͘of ̢e̛ve͟r̷y̧t͡hi͡ng̴,” She nodded her head meekly and looked back where Famine had been dragged off.

                “Sh͞e͞ c̶a̛n ̧b̶e͝ a͞n͞noy̛in͜g̡,” he said again, his voice dropping and hiding the glitchiness it had, “b͘ut ̨i͘f̧ you ig̡no͞re̸ her͘ fo͞r ̸l͏on͘g҉ ęn͝ou̸gh͠ ̡then҉ s͘he’ll le͜t͘ y̴ou o̕f͢f̛ with̵o̡ųt to҉o̧ ̨mu͢c͜h͟ h̢a͠s͟sle,” She pulled a small notepad from the oversized pocket and scribbled down a few words.

                 _“Why won’t she let me go off alone?”_ the note read, and Anti’s stomach knotted up slightly. There were dozens of possible reasons why the Horseman would be so interested in keeping Arson by her side. With Famine, she had the best chance to learn what she needed to live in this world by herself, though Anti doubted she’d even be truly alone again guess by how Famine always “checked in” on Anti.

                “Peop͟le ar͡e͝ ̕da̶ng̶er̛o͠ưs,” he said simply, and she tilted her head in question, “an̶d y͠ou͘’҉ll͡ ͡g͡et͞ k͢ill̷e̵d҉ ̸o̶ut ther̛e if yo͝u a͜ren’t prep̵a̡r͠ed̸. That͡’s҉ why ̷yo̵u͘’re ͘goin̶g ̢w͜i͞t̸h͝ her,̡ s͞h̨e’s g͡o̵ing ̵t͘o ͞ţea͝c͞h you,”

                 _“Can’t you teach?”_  she wrote and looked back up at him with expectant eyes.

                “N̵o,” he said, “I d̸o̷n’̧t ̨ţe̶a̛ch͟,” She nodded her head quietly and stuffed the notepad back into her pocket just as Famine came back looking slightly discouraged.

                “Damn tourists…” she cursed and turned back to them, “But now that that’s over I think its time to go,” she looked down at Arson who nodded her head and cowered slightly at the Horseman’s gaze. She looked up at Anti, nodded curtly, and the two of them went on down to their terminal.

                That was the last he had heard or seen from either of them. For four months he was left in peaceful solitude in Brighton to do as he pleased. He rested for a while once he got home and let his host catch up on his work and subtly influenced him to stockpile more and more in case something like that happened again. His Host’s follows, “Fans” as he called them, were slightly upset that he had disappeared without a word or warning, but now that he was back things were beginning to settle down.

                Anti was resting in his host computer when things first began to turn strange. A small blood-stained envelope had arrived at the virtual doorstep of the computer-generated room he retreated to. It was addressed to no one but looked as if someone had tried to write something with the blood. Before he could open it up, the letter vanished with a sharp crack that left his mind buzzing and digital body numb. He went off to search for the letter on the web, but it was as if it never existed at all.

                The next occurrence was a physical feeling. A full body shock that left him immobile for hours after and scrambled his mind. The pain was focused on the underside of his arms, waist, and neck. In the back of his mind, he heard something like an alarm, but it was faint like bird calls in a wind storm.

Now he knew something was up thought what he had no idea. The closest idea he had was perhaps a virus on his Host's computer that had latched onto him somehow, that would explain the alarms in his mind, but what about the letter? He'd never seen something like that before.

The letter came back a few weeks later covered in more blood, almost completely soaked in it, but this time when he went to grab it a voice played like a broken and scratched record.

_"Un-t 8652 Re--esting A-d D—igna-ion_ **REDACTED**! A-L –re –dered to assi— in r-eco-very"

There was no address attached, but a set of coordinates that weren't too far away. If it meant these letters and random bursts of pain would stop then he'd go, and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't mildly curious of the sender and their intentions.

Famine sat in an old office chair on monitored the green radio waves and watched them spike up and down. She had no idea where the signals were being sent to, but she hoped it was reaching the person she wanted it to.

Slowly the waves began to lower, but Famine simply leaned over and pressed a button on the monitor and the dark room in front of her lit up with a bright almost blinding green light. Chains clattered together loudly as Famine opened up the door and stepped in; The electracy switched off as she flipped a set of switches and the lights flipped on.

_"Just a little longer honey,"_  she said,  _"Just until I find that friend of yours..."_ She watched them try to walk towards them, but the spikes from her collar dug into her throat and another wave of electracy pulsed through her body. Her body jerked and she fell back to the floor as blood dripped from her throat and mouth. Famine took some notes.

_"This would be over sooner if you just call out to him now,"_  she said, but she didn't look up. Instead, she fell to the floor unconscious from blood loss and shock. Famine grunted and walked out of the room turning off the lights as she went.

War did not like waiting. Everyone he commanded knew this and if things weren't given to him in a timely manner then he would make sure their death would be slow and painful. No person knew just how impatient War was except for Arson which was why he knew she had failed her mission when she didn't report back within the month. War was tempted to let her stew in her failure and whatever torment Vanity had in store for her, but this was part of a bigger plot. Finding Famine then finding Death, then forcing Justice out of hiding making the Guardian pay for what they did to him.

"Sir?" A timid voice interrupted his thoughts. War turned and saw a Scientist, one of his seniors, standing at the doorway of his chambers with a clipboard in hand, "We have a problem,"

The coordinates lead Anti to an old power plant way outside the main part of some city outside London. It was still operational from what he could feel, but he didn't see any workers and the place looked pretty deserted. Something wasn't right...

His feet crunched on the gravel as he walked around the building to find a way inside. Sure enough, the cellar lock was busted and he descended into the pitch-black basement. A rat squeaked loudly and dashed off into the air vent as Anti blindly walked down a hallway with his hand on the wall to guide him. Glass cracked under his feet as he turned into another room, but this one had been used recently. A cheap dirty bed was laid out on the floor with stacks of papers beside it; A monitor was on the other side of the room and lit the room with a dim green glow. As he walked towards it, the waves began to fluctuate up and down. Everything was old and worn out, but it looked like it was being used quite thoroughly, whatever it was being used for.

He stepped out the room and tried the door on the left and was hit with the scent of burnt blood. The entire room felt alive with electricity and he heard the soft clink of chains. He blindly searched the wall for the light and the sight he saw froze his blood.

It was Arson, chained up and wired up in a pool of blood. She had shackles around her wrists, feet, and a large collar that sent a chill up Anti's spine. Her body was covered in electrical burns and gashes; Wires were stuck into her skin and seemed to go to her were bones. She looked up at him as blood trickled from her mouth and started to try to stand, but her legs gave out. Anti quickly ran to her and tried to look for a way to free her, but her chains were latched tight. He tilted her head to look closer at the collar, and sure enough, there was a ring of 2-inch spikes stuck into her neck. He knew this collar all too well.

_"What are you doing here?"_  Someone asked harshly. Anti turned with his knife in hand and saw Famine standing in the doorway with clipbook in hand looking quite surprised.

“What ̛th͘e͟ ͡hell are͢ ͞y͟ou͡ do͠ing̛ ̸t̵o h̕e͘r͡?,” He snarled.

_"What does it matter to you?"_  Famine snapped,  _"The better question is, how did you find this place?"_

"Wh̡at̨ a͜r̢e͞ you͢ t̢a͠lking ͡abo҉ut?͠ Yo҉ư s̵e͠nt m͠e ͟on͞ ͡a ģo͢os͢e ̵cha͏se an͡d҉ ͜I ̶e͜n͏ded ͟up her͝e," he said and knelt back down to Arson, but stayed facing Famine. He carefully tested one of the wires attached to her arms before cutting it swiftly with his knife.

_"You don't know what you're doing Anti,"_  Famine said,  _"She's important if we want to..."_

"Y͏o͡u're t͢ortu̕rin̡g h͘er̸," Anti said harshly, " I͝ ͜know͞ w҉h͠a͟t̕ ̸yo̵u̶'r̵e ͟tryi͟ng͘ to ̵d̨o. D͝on͞'̡t̡ t͠ry ̷ţo justif͢y i͟t͘ ͝w͝ith͟ ͢so͝m̸e͞ ̷n̡ob͏le ̶ca̷us̷e,"

_"I'm trying to find War and put an end to this pointless bullshit, you sick project failure!"_ His knife was out of his hand before he could even register what had happened. It stuck itself right into Famine's shoulder and she fell to the ground with a sharp cry. Anti's hands were shaking and his entire body was screaming for him to tear into Famine, but he had more important things to deal with. He felt something grab latch onto his ankle weakly and when he looked down he saw Arson trying to stand once more, but her chains were too heavy for her weak body and were holding her down.

"L҉e͠t̢͝҉. ̷̴H͜͟e̢ŗ͘. ͡G҉̷ơ̡.." Anti growled darkly as Famine pulled herself back up and tried to pull the knife from her shoulder, " E̡ls̨͘e̴ ̵͡͠W҉a̷̶̢r ̛w͠҉̷on͠'͜t̵̸͟ ͢b̶͞͠e ͟͟t̴̵͘h͘͢e͡ ̵̴ơ̢̧n̴͘l͟҉y̷̛ ̡perso҉̢n̸̷̡ ͞y͢ou h͟av̕͘͢e҉ ̶a̧ ̛͘f͜҉i̷g͘h̡̡t͟ ͘w̴҉i̧t̵h,"

_"You don't know what you're doing Anti,"_  she breathed, but she pulled out a grey remote and pressed a button. There was a loud noise and her shackles released besides the collar. He watched Famine as he finished cutting away the last of the wires and tried to support her weight. Neither party said a word as Anti reached his hand out to one of the wires he had just cut and the two of the disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Anti didn't like to travel through cables and wires unless it was absolutely necessary and with the amount of blood dripping onto the blue light bridge from Arson's body, he didn't have time to take the train back home. Her breathing hissed and whistled through the nail poking through her windpipe. She was growing increasingly limp and her feet began to drag, so Anti gave up trying to help her walk and simply scooped her up in his arms and stepped off the bridge.

He stepped out of the TV and back into his living room, his head buzzing and body numb, but he quickly sat Arson down on the kitchen table and grabbed the phone. He dialed the familiar number while he grabbed washcloths and bottles of peroxide.

"Vello?" A voice answered as he set the items down on the table.

"I͟ ͠n͝e͝e͞d y̨ou͟ ҉d̸ow͢n h̢ęr͢e," Anti said simply as he pressed down on one of her wounds, "N҉ow,"

"Can't you come down vere?" The man asked, and Arson flinched under the pressure with a soft whine.

"No, ͠I ̡c̷an'̕t͠," he said sharply as the washcloth quickly soaked with blood, " N͟o͟w҉ Schn͘ęepel̕s͘t͝e͠in͟!"

"Alvight! Alvight!" the man said, “Give me venty minutes,” the call end with a click and Anti tossed the phone onto the counter. He tried to scotch another one of her other wounds when she started fighting back. She whined and pushed back as he tried to press down on the wound, her face scrunched up in pain and her eyes squeezed shut. He knew for a fact that it was the collar, but if he tried to take it off then he ran the risk of her bleeding out on the table before Schneep even got here.

She grabbed at his hand and weakly clawed at them. It didn’t do any damage, but it was keeping him from cleaning the gash properly.

“S͜ta͝y͢ ͞s͝t͜i̡ll̶ ̢or ҉you̢’ll͘ ͘m͟ak͢e͞ t͘h̡i͡s ̛wo͠rse,” he said and tried to keep her hand down. It was then he noticed just how bad her hands were shaking and how cold they were, but this wasn’t from blood loss. This was shaking almost like something was trying to get out.

Schneep needed to fucking hurry.

Most of what she had known was a pain of some kind, but this was a whole new experience. It felt like her skin was about to rip open and bust and him touching her was only making things so much worse. She knew he was only trying to help, but he was making it worse.

The collar pulsed painfully with her heartbeat and it made her want to claw her eyes out or just help her skin rip itself open. She must have been doing something because the next thing she knew Anti had her hand pinned to the table. Arson didn’t open her eyes if she did she’d lose the comfort of the darkness and possible tear into whatever was closest. She didn’t even know she had begun to dig her nails into the flesh of her palms or that her nails had turned into razor-sharp black claws until he forced her hand flat to the table.

His hand snapped to the door just as Schneep walked in with a worn and bloody medical bag at his side. The man looked exhausted, but when he looked up as saw Anti struggling to hold Arson down to the table, exhaustion turned to shock.

“Any ̢tim͏e ̷S̛chn̛eep͠!͜” Anti snapped and the doctor snapped from his daze and rush to the man's side. Her clawed hand racked across the table as Schneep dug into his bag for the right tools.

“Vell, zis is quite zhe surprise,” he said as if he was performing a normal check up and not life-saving surgery, “I don’t zhink ve have met before, my dear,” Arson forced her eyes open and he watched as she looked at him, eyes wild and very much in pain

“T͘ha̡t ̷c̛o̸l͏l̴ar̵s͘ ͝d͠riv͝ing͟ ̡s͢p͏ik͜es ͜in̴t̸ǫ her throat,” Anti explained as he lightly placed a hand on its metal frame. A strong shock shot up his arm and her hand lashed out to his stomach. He just barely dodged her, but she managed to cut his arm.

“Now now,” Schneep said, “Zhere is no need to be violent,” She tried to pull herself up from the table and both Anti and Schneep had to hold her down to the table. Schneep reached back into his bag and pulled out a large needle and a bottle of clear liquid.

“Hold her arm down,” Schneep said as he began to draw a large amount of liquid into the syringe. Anti held her down by her shoulder and held her wrist down as he carefully stuck her vein. She struggled against him until the powerful sedative began to take effect and cycle through her bloodstream. Within a minute she was beginning to go limp on the table and a minute later she had gone still and her eyes stared blankly at the ceiling.

“How͟ ̢mu̶ch ͏d͡i҉d you͏ g͠i̶v̷ę he̛r̶?͠,” Anti asked and glanced over towards Schneep as he loosened his grip on her arm.

“A little more zan vhat I have to give you,” he said, “Now vets get to cleaning her up,”

               

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy oh boy did we learn some stuff in this chapter! Famine's even more of an asshole than we thought she was and Anti is actually not that bad of a guy. How fitting is it that Schneep made his appearance in the story when he just came back from vacation? Schneep and Anti's relationship will be explored further because there is a dynamic there, they aren't just friends for shits and giggles.
> 
> Man do I have some plans for these guys in the very near future :)


	8. An Offer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at me rising from the dead to publish a chapter lol I'm actually in college now and decided to write some to relieve some stress and anxiousness from it all. I promise to update more I just need to work around my classes now. 
> 
> Enjoy!

It took almost four and a half hours for them to dress her wounds, and Schneep wasn't satisfied until every minor scratch was cleaned and dressed. Blood stained the kitchen table a sickly red and at least a dozen rags needed to be tossed out; Anti had various smaller scratches that needed some stitchings, but now they were both stitched up. Arson was moved to the couch with Schneep crashed on a recliner nearby. Anti was bagging bloody rags and cloths and trying to clean up the blood on the kitchen floor. It wasn't that he insisted on cleaning up the mess, Schneep had sat down in the recliner after he carried Arson to the couch and the next thing Anti knew he was out cold. He decided not to wake the doctor up, he seemed on the verge of collapse all through the operation; Something might come up later that would require the doctor's full attention. 

He ignored the collar that had been unceremoniously tossed in the corner. Bits of flesh were stuck to the spikes and it threw off waves of static. It almost felt as if he wondered too close then a bolt of electricity would jump out and shock him. He clenched his teeth anytime he got near; he had experience with the same type of collar in the past and knew just what level of pain it could cause. He was wary of Famines intentions in the first place, but now it was clear that she wasn't interested in helping her anymore.

He left the collar and went to the living room, odds were Schneep would want to study it later so it was probably best to not destroy it to a million pieces. They were both still asleep, Schneep the most peace of the two of them. Arson trembled violently whether that was from the collar or whatever else was wrong with her Anti couldn't tell. She groaned quietly when Anti got close and her eyes fluttered open. Anti froze up for a moment as she frowned.

**"Painkillers wore off,"**  Anti said more to himself than to her. She tried to lift her head, but quietly whined in pain and laid back down. He went back to the doctor's bag and grabbed the syringe and bottle of clear fluid. He'd had to stick himself many times in the past, but he rarely had to stick anyone else; Perks of living and working alone. Schneep said he gave her a dose similar to his, so it was safe to go just a bit above 200 mg.

He went back to the couch and knelt down beside her. She rolled her head and watched him with hazy drugged eyes. She sighed deeply as he prepared the syringe. 

**"I'm not really a fan of them either if that helps any,"**  he said,  **"But it'll help,"**  She grunted in response as he took her arm and looked with a visible vein. He pinched the area just above where he stuck her so she wouldn't feel it as much, but it was still a big needle. She whined and curled her fingers and for a split second he saw the skin on the edges of her fingers turn black, but a second later and it was over. He gently wiped the skin with an alcohol wipe and placed the needle away.

**"I told you it wasn't going to be that bad,"**  he glanced back at her and something caught his eye. If he'd have blinked he would have missed it, but for a split second he saw her sat up screaming into the air; Claws digging into the bandaging in her neck and her eyes black as pitch.

He should just ignore it. Just chalk it up to a trick of the eye and nothing more, but he knew what he saw. It was too fast and too real to just be a trick of the eye.

Now he knew why Famine was so keen on keeping her at her side.

**“Try and get some more sleep** **,”** he said, but she scrunched her face up in pain once more. Of course, if what he saw really was a glitch then no amount of painkillers in the world would help; Anti had tried, and that ended up with him overdosing his host more than once.

She licked her lips but otherwise seemed content. She nodded her head and closed her eyes as Anti went back to the kitchen and took a seat at one the discarded chairs.

The next morning, Schneep had suggested taking her to his clinic across the river to get better treatment and to run a full set of tests. Arson was fully awake by now, well, as awake as someone beaten near to death could be. Schneep had already changed out her blood-soaked bandages for fresh ones and tried to check over areas that he couldn’t fully get to the night before. Her back was riddled with small wire holes some with wires still left in from where Anti had cut them free. Something like that needed to be removed before it caused serious infection and Anti’s kitchen table wouldn’t be a suitable place to operate.

A quick 20-minute drive later and she was moved into the operating theater. They didn’t bother sedating her, but they did numb up the lower parts of her arms and upper half of her back. She barely moved even when Schneep and Doctor Iplier carefully cut into her skin to dig out the wires, and she kept her eyes closed like she was concentrating.

Anti watched from the viewing window. Mostly to watch Arson in case something went wrong, but he watched Doctor Iplier as well. He didn’t trust an Iplier even though the doctor had left the family ages ago. He hadn’t stated his reason for leaving so in his mind Anti had every reason to be wary.

“Alright, let me see your arm,” Doctor Iplier said as he held a needle in his hand. He watched her clench her fist and saw her hand tremble.

“I need to see your arm, ma’am,” Doctor Iplier restated and gently tried to grab her arm. Arson jerked away but still kept her eyes closed. By now Schneep had stopped his work and turned his attention to the interaction.

“If ze lady does not vont her shot now zen we will simply give it to her later,” he said sternly and cast a glance towards Anti in the window. If Schneep hadn’t said anything then Anti would have, and he wouldn’t have been so nice about it.

A few minutes later and her arms and back were safely bandaged and cleaned. Doctor Iplier quickly left the theater once he saw the glare Anti shot his way when he walked in and mumbled something about paperwork. Schneep hung around and was writing something down when Anti stepped up beside him.

“I didn’t vant to put her under too much stress so ve just treated her vounds for now,” he said as he wrote, “She didn’t vook she liked ze idea of having her blood draw just yet,”

**“If you didn’t say something then I would have,”**  he said but kept his voice as steady as he could. He saw Schneep glance up in surprise, but Anti was testing something. Arson had picked up that he’d walked in before he said anything; Her head tilted in the direction of the door and her stance relaxed. Slightly, but she still relaxed none the less.

**“He’s gone,”** Anti said to Arson who still had her eyes closed and her head bowed slightly,  **“and he probably won’t be back as long as I’m in here,”** She shyly opened her eyes and blinked a few times before she looked up at them. She wasn’t scared, she was more nervous than anything, but a quick scan of the room and he saw her body relax.

“Yes,” Schneep chimed in, “Doctor Iplier is a flighty vone, vut he is a good doctor,”

**“What else do you need from her?”** Anti cut him off and looked at Schneep with his arms crossed. The doctor quickly flipped through the papers on his clipboard and mumbled softly to himself.

“Just a few rounds of shots, vut zose can vait for a few days until she’s healed up more,” he said, “Ve can keep her here to make sure she is safe...” Arson snorted at the idea though Anti doubted she meant to do it out loud. She ducked her head once she realized what she’d done and refused to make eye contact with either one of them.

**“Or she can stay with me,”** Anti chimed in and Schneep’s head snapped towards him, but he kept his gaze on Arson who lifted her head back up to looked at him with a confused gaze.

**“There’s a chance Famine could come to hunt her down,”** he reasoned,  **“and you can’t fight off a Horseman,** **Schneep** **,”**

“Have you seen me fight before?” Schneep asked with a mocking offense, “I’ll have you know zat I vas once ze best fighter back home,” Anti glanced his way with an eyebrow raised, clearly less than impressed.

**“A pistol doesn’t count as fighting,”** he mocked in all seriousness and looked back at Arson. Schneep sneered and mockingly echoed back his words silently. Arson snorted at the act but quickly ducked her head once more to hide her face.

“Vell, let me run a vew more tests then ve can let Ms. Arson decide,” Schneep said with a kind smile. He nodded his head as he walked out of the theater and flipped through her clipboard. She gently rubbed at bandaging on her arm as Anti crossed his arms.

**“The offer still stands,”**  he said, but she simply continued to rub at her bandaging,  **“You don’t have anywhere else to go otherwise,”** She suddenly curled her hand around her arm and he saw the bandaging stain a bright red.

**“But it’s up to you,”**  he said choosing his words carefully, **“If you do decide to go out on your own then...I’ll...help in whatever way I can,”** Now it was his turn to avert his gaze and Arson looked up at him. He knew that look in her eyes; A look of mistrust, but there was curiosity. He could remember when he first woke up in the Compound and how someone made a similar promise to him all those years ago.

But he wasn’t going to force her back into that collar. He wasn’t going to poke and prod her until she lost her grip on reality. He wasn’t going to let her walk down that path he was forced into.

Something dripped down his lip. When he brought his hand up to wipe it away it came back slick with blood. He was quick to clean it away with his shirt, but Arson had already noticed and was looking at him with a worried expression. He waved it off and quickly left the theater to try and hide his own shaking.

Arson watched him go and debated on following him, but a heavy feeling in her chest told her not to though maybe that was the metal plate in her chest. She gripped her arm tighter until her hand felt wet and sticky and she smelt blood. It was a trick she’d learned after suffering through Famine’s torture and when she’d tried all she could to escape and Famine would just increase the voltage; Blood always seemed to ease everything and made the pain stop if only for a little bit.

“Oh my dear, vat have you done?” Schneep asked as he briskly walked over to her. She snapped her head up as he sat the clipboard down and quickly looked over her arm, “You muzent scratch! You’ll make it vorse later,” Arson simply nodded her head as he unwrapped her bandaging. Three stitches had been ripped out, but it wasn’t anything serious in her opinion. Schneep clearly disagreed and was quickly cleaning away the blood and restitching the area.

“Normally I vould have sent a patient home by now,” he said as he worked, “vut you really don’t have anyvere to go and you can only stay here for so long,”

“Anti did offer his home if you’re feeling brave,” he said with a shrug, “Zough I can’t imagine he vould be ze best company,” Arson grunted and Schneep looked up at her waiting for her to speak. She tapped her throat and pointed to the clipboard; Thankfully Schneep understood and handed it to her with a spare pen.

_“You seem like the only one who can tolerate him,”_ she wrote on the back on some type of blood tests. She held it out for him to read as he worked.

“Vell, zat is vone way to put it,” he said with a small smirk, “He doesn’t care much for ze company of others which is why I'm surprised he’s helped you. He’s helped me vith some experiments in ze past and I’ve helped him vith ze dozens of injuries he’s had, so our relationship in beneficial for both of us,” 

_“Did you teach him anything?”_

“If he learned anything zen he learned it on his own,” he replied as he finished the stitching with a neat knot, “Like I said, not ze social type,”

That’s what didn’t make sense to her. Sure, Anti was standoffish to Dark and Famine, but she figured that was just because they were assholes in just about every way. He seemed pretty social with her, and even last night when she was completely out of it. It seemed like all he wanted to do for her was help.

Maybe everyone had it backward or maybe there was something she just wasn’t seeing, and given the state of how she’d been lately, that seemed more likely.


	9. Loose Ends

              It was an… adjustment having someone else in the house with him. He was always aware of what was going on inside the house at all time; Since he was connected to every piece of tech in the house he could feel anything that came within 10 feet of it. Arson, however, seemed to sneak around the house and slip past unnoticed more often than not. She was incredibly quiet and had snuck up on Anti quite a few times though she didn’t mean to. She was like a cat, always moving and looking around.

              The first few days were the most stressful. It seemed like she needed to know every single nook and cranny of the house and then some. Anti rarely slept, to begin with, but he could hear her up during the nights walking the halls, opening doors, moving furniture, and flicking lights on and off. At some point, he even heard the front door open telling him she’d ventured outside, but he simply stood from the desk and watched from the window as she lapped the house once…twice…three times… and then came back inside with a soft click of the door. In the morning he’d find her curled up on the oversized armchair still awake just staring at the wall or floor.

              This went on for about a week before she must have felt safe enough at the house to stop checking things every night. Anti could only guess why she did it, but if it made her feel safer, then he wasn’t really going to question it.

              The sleeping had also been solved. There was a small guest room that he had converted to storage shortly after moving thinking that he wouldn’t have any company. Arson had, of course, dug her way through the boxes and fan gifts and made herself a small hiding hole where he could expect to find her if she wasn’t in the living room. It would take Anti weeks to relocate everything in the room by himself and he didn’t really see Arson helping anytime soon; She seemed content enough with her cubby for the time being anyway, but there was one other thing that he was waiting to see if he was right.

              He had thought, maybe for longer than he should have, about what he had seen that night. It was so quick that it couldn’t have been real; Glitch’s last for a few seconds at least and what he saw was almost too quick for him to comprehend and now that he had gotten a chance to see how she acted when not completely under a mountain of pills, he was beginning to believe what he saw less and less. She showed no sign of bloodlust, aggression, or isolation. In fact, she showed the opposite, once she calmed down she was curious and a strange childlike way. She was always bright-eyed and alert and bored herself easily. He’d caught her staring outside one day at the squirrel that had taken up residence in one of the pine trees in the yard and she was fascinated by it. He’d forgotten that she had lost her memory, her entire memory by the looks of things. She had no clue what she was, what he was, anything about the Collapse or the rest of the Sins and Atrocities. All she knew was what he told her, and she took it as the truth.

              And that idea worried him.  

              There was still the problem of his bloodlust that hadn’t been sated in almost a month; a problem that he needed to sort out before it became all he thought about. It was one of the things he knew Famine was proud had stayed around after he’d been created; Death to the weak and unworthy in the most painful way possible. He would lose himself if he wasn’t careful about his timing, he had before. When he first started adjusting to this world and he saw just how many things were deemed unfit to live, it was…overstimulation, to say the least. He didn’t remember much from that time, but Famine told him he had gone through at least 70 hosts and killed over 200 people in the span of two years.

              Thankfully, Schneep needed to run a few more tests so it would be the perfect time to work things out. Arson was bright-eyed and curious as always when he her told they were going out to town, but her face dropped when he told her it was to Schneep’s.

              **“The last thing he’s going to do is hurt you,”** he as they started down the side of the road into town. She sneered, **“Why would he want to hurt you anyway?”** He glanced over at her and saw her drop her head slightly; She made to reach for her back pocket where she had a small notebook and pencil to convey messages where expressions alone wouldn’t work, but she stopped and simply buried her hands in her pockets.

              As they made their way into town, the sight of the townsfolk and the decorations reminded him just how late in the year it was. Autumn garland was twisted around the lamp posts dotted along the streets and annual mums hung from shop windows along with scarecrows and pumpkins. Fall was quickly approaching with its festive celebrations which only made the screaming echoes for blood seem so much louder. How long had he been here now? 3 years? Had it really been that long?

              Of course, what was an annoyance for Anti attracted Arson like a moth to a flame. When Anti forced himself to break his train of thought, he quickly noticed that Arson had wondered off. She didn’t wander far, he found her in front of one of the storefronts admiring the orange glow of the leaves and pumpkins. It was for a local candy shop so people walked in and out of the store with bags filled with sweets and carried a sweet aroma with them. Anti stepped up beside her and saw her watching the taffy stretching machine with wide eyes. He was in charge of what she learned or remembered, but he doubted War ever let her taste candy. He didn’t have much of a sweet tooth himself, but he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity if it happened to come up.

              He elbowed her and nodded his head towards the shop door and walked past her. She quickly caught up with him as he walked in the store and both were assaulted with the sickeningly sweet smell of taffy and sugar. He grabbed one of the bags and slowly walked along the rows of brightly colored jars and wrappers. He grabbed one of the jars of twisted licorice and took a sizable bite out of the black plastic candy. Arson looked on curious till he pinched on a piece and offered it to her.

              **“Try it,”** he said as he chewed on the rest. She glanced up at him questionably before she took the piece and took a careful bite. Her face soured up as she forced herself to swallow the foul tasting licorice. Anti smirked as she shook her head to rid her mind of the taste.

              **“I’ve met maybe three people who actually enjoy the taste of black licorice,”** he said as he finished off the piece, **“So I figured you wouldn’t like it,”** She glared at him as she clicked her tongue to try and rid of the taste. They wandered around the store for a few minutes browsing the brightly colored sweets and shaped chocolates. She was cautious tasting anything else after the licorice but was won over by a bright bag of crystallized sugar and the shopkeeper insisted that she try some of the fudge and taffy that had just been made that morning. In the end, she had a bag filled with colored sweets and another bag of fudges and taffies. She hoped Anti didn’t notice, but she had gotten some things that she noticed he liked. It was the least she could do for everything he had done, even if it meant she had to go back to the black licorice jars and hide them amongst the neon candies.

              They continued down the road; Arson munching happily on crystallized sugar and Anti trying to keep her from getting too distracted and wandering off again, but Arson simply watched the people walking the streets and watched the soft twinkling of fairy lights in shop windows. There was a cold chill in the air and her hands instinctively buried themselves back in her pockets as she sucked on another piece of candy. They passed a few street performers: musicians and magicians and the like when she felt the hair prickle on the back of her neck. She thought about telling Anti, after all, he told her that she felt something was off to tell him, but her gaze stuck on a group of men and women on the other side of the street sitting at one of the café tables.

              _“We know them…”_  a soft voice whispered, _“Hellhounds…”_ Arson hadn’t the slightest clue what the voice was saying or what on earth a Hellhound was, but she knew this feeling that caused her chest to tighten and her breathing to quicken. These people weren’t good people, they weren’t good at all. A woman from the group turned to look at her and she felt a chill shoot up her spine as she quickly stepped up beside Anti.

              The feeling eventually passed, thankfully, as they crossed the river and made their way to Schneep’s office. A tucked away building in a run-down part of town that had quite a bit of traffic; Schneep did what he could to help those in need. Those try as he might, his efforts often lead to death and mutilation.

              “Ah! Velcome back!” the German man greeted them as they walked in. The room stunk of blood and flesh, but it was something Anti had become used to. Arson? Not so much. The good doctor himself with decorated with flecks of dried crimson blood and his sleeves were much more soaked; The only thing clean was his glasses and mask.

              “Vhat brings you back so soon?” he said with a kind smile.

              **“Just to let you finish up the last of the tests,”** Anti said and Schneep smiled brightly and quickly lead them back to his office. His office, much like Schneep himself, was a disheveled mess of experiment reports, patient files, and week-old pots of coffee. Arson sat at one of the patient chairs, but Anti stayed near the door with his arms crossed.

              “Take a seat,” Schneep said as he sat at his desk, “I can throw on a fresh pot of coffee?”

              **“I’ve got…other work to do** ,” Anti said with a slight clench of his teeth. The scent of blood was almost overwhelming and he was biting the insides of his cheek to try in distract himself; It was working, but only just. Schneep got the message almost right away, though Arson looked back at him with a confused and rather nervous look.

“I did notice zat ze neighborhood had been a bit quieter lately,” the doctor said as he reached over for a file sat atop a stack of papers, “Ve’ll be here when you’re done.” Arson knit her brows together in confusion as he made to leave, but Anti just ignored her as best he could and quickly made his way back out into the streets.

              Arson’s stomach twisted into nervous knots at Anti’s sudden disappearance. She trusted the doctor, but she couldn’t protect herself if something went wrong; She didn’t know the first thing about fighting and the feeling of helplessness and vulnerability made her want to claw at her skin.

              “Vell, now vet’s get down to business,” Schneep said with a clap of his hands; Arson jumped slightly at the sudden noise and tried to push everything back down.

              “You’ll back happy to know zat I won’t need to do any more physical tests, but zese are zhe fun tests,” he flipped open the folder and pulled out a few different papers colored with black blots of ink. The knowledge that there wouldn’t be anyone needles or blood helped ease the anxiety in her chest, but she didn’t know what the doctor could hope to learn from a few blots of ink on paper.

              “All I’m going to do is show you zese pictures, and I vant you to tell me what you see,” he looked up at her with a friendly smile. She nodded her head and forced herself to relax.

              For the next hour they went through the stack of papers as Arson wrote down what she saw for the doctor; A dog, two faces kissing, a butterfly, animal hide. With each answer she gave Schneep would nod his head in approval and write something down on what she could only guess was her file. Sometimes, he would share a story about an answer she gave. He’d talk about how he always saw a rare butterfly in the spring when he was back home in Germany and how his mother always called them _schön_ , or _Beautiful One_ , or how he’d adopted a springer pup last year that he named Türsteher. With each story, Arson found herself more and more comfortable around the good doctor. There was still that sense of unease that settled under her chest and just wouldn’t go away, maybe it was the eerie look of the ink blots that still somehow managed to look like something, and nothing, at the same time.

              There was a hard knock on the door that seemed to shake the entire building. Arson’s head snapped towards the noise and she gripped tightly to the armrests of the chair, but Schneep seemed calm and collected.

              “And here I thought today would be an easy day,” he said with a tired sigh as he stood and walked out of the office. Arson bounced her leg nervously and tried to listen to what was going on in the front room, but she couldn’t make out the words. She could hear Schneep say something and then someone else said something, a female voice, she had to guess. The voices got louder as Schneep raised his voice, and then there was a sickening thunk and something hit the floor.

              Arson quickly stood from her chair, pushing it back as it fell to the floor as footsteps thundered to the room. Her breathing quickened as she quickly looked around the room for any way to flee or even hide, but there was only one exit and she wouldn’t be able to fit in the small spaces between the stacks of papers. She was trapped.

              “Well Well,” a cool voice said as Arson spun around to face them. In the doorway stood a woman much taller than Arson herself. Tied to her waist was a belt decorated with different weapons and utensils, including a long pronged whip on her right hip, “You ran quite the race little errat, but now its time for you to come back home,”

              “War’s not happy with you, he’s not happy at all,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love cliff hangers :) yall don't but I do 
> 
> I'm going to try and update more regularly, but college is a kick in the ass and anxiety is a bitch yada yada excuse excuse, look I'm trying ok
> 
> Be sure to leave some reviews and jazz cause that helps pump out more chapters :)


	10. The Hunter Hunted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you kids like blood and dismemberment :)

They had been tracking her for days now, but she expected more of a challenge from the girl. Mirium had seen the girls work and knew that she could kill a man and not leave a trace of herself behind; She was used as a “final test” of sorts for various trackers and Hellhounds because if you could find her then you could find anyone.

              But she was sloppy here, leaving traces of her scent everywhere and not hiding her identity when in public, going by her real name. It was child’s play for a Hellhound, but why would this girl drop out the map in the first place? She knew nothing outside of the Compound and War kept her on a short leash, so she should have known the moment she didn’t report in that he would come after her.

              “I’m surprised to find you in a dump like this,” Mirium growled as she looked around at the cluttered and disheveled office space. Arson backed up and nearly lost her footing on a thick stack of old x-rays. She reminded her of a fawn or a colt trying to get its footing for the first time; It was quite comical to watch.

              “So before we get to beating and fighting I’ve got to ask,” Mirium stepped forward and saw her eyes searching wildly for a way to escape, “How did you think you were going to be able to escape this?” Her mouth opened like a fish gasping for breath, but she didn’t say a word. She looked on the verge of tears.

              “Nothing to say?” she mocked as she unhooked the whip from her belt, “Alright then, let's get this over with,” Arson coward down with wide eyes as she pulled the whip back and stuck near her feet with a sharp crack. Blue lightning jumped from the pronged tips, fully intended for Arson’s body, but instead, it jumped to a bare lamp sitting atop a stack of papers. Sparks filled the room and Mirium shielded herself from them as Arson took her chance and bolted for the door. She tried to reach out and grab her as she passed, but she was too fast.

              “Don’t let her get out!” Mirium shouted to the group in the lobby as her arm was burnt with sparks. There was some shouting, and something was hit, but when she ran out, she saw two of her group on the floor and the rest rushing out the door. Mirium wasted no time and followed the rest of the group, she’d deal with the failures later.

              She didn’t know how she was able to dodge all those people in the lobby or even how she was able to keep going even after one of them managed to nail her in the chest and nearly knocked her out flat then and there. All she knew now was that she needed to keep going, where didn’t matter, she just needed to get away from these people.

              She was running deeper into the run down side of town, more places to hide once she lost them but now that she was down here she saw just how bad of an idea it was. There was hardly anybody on the streets beside homeless men and woman clumped together around fire barrels. She couldn’t rely on anyone’s help here she was on her own.

              She risked a glance back as she rounded a corner and saw the group still hot on her heels, eyes burning red and fangs bared for blood. When she turned back around, she ran full force into an old man and skidded across the ground. Her face stung, and she felt something drip down her lips, but she didn’t have time to stop as she pulled herself up and kept running completely ignoring the man on the ground.

              “Gotcha!” a man yelled as she turned another corner. She didn’t know how they got in front of her, but she scratched at his arm as he reached to grab her, grabbed him while he howled in pain, and swung him back behind her as she ran into an abandoned warehouse.

              She sprinted up the stairs three at a time before she ran out of stairs and came to the top floor with only a few sparse wooden boxes tucked in the corners. She hobbled to the far corner and collapsed behind one of them; Her body shook with exhaustion and her chest heaved for lung fulls of airs. Her entire body felt like it was on fire and she knew she wouldn’t be able to run any longer. She fell to her knees as blood dripped down her chin and to the floor; footsteps thundered up the stairs and she tried to quiet her breathing.

              Meanwhile, at the clinic, Schneep was finally rising with a thick pump knot of the side of his head and two bodies beside of him. The bell at the door was what woke him; Anti stood at the door eyes wide in surprise before quickly realizing what had happened. He quickly ran to the back office praying he wouldn’t find her butchered body on the floor, and thankfully only found a destroyed lamp and burnt carpet. Whatever had happened she’d managed to get away from, but he needed to find her.

              **“Schneep, what the hell happened?”** Anti barked as he went back to the lobby to help the doctor.

              “I don’t know,” the man said cradling his head in his hands, “I vent to answer ze door and it was a group of people. I barely had time to ask who zey were before zey hit me upside ze head,” Anti helped the doctor into a chair and quickly ran outside, but, just like he thought, there was no sign of Arson or the attackers. He couldn’t track people and he didn’t have much time to casually walk the streets and hope she was there, but there was always that one theory he had…

              **“Come on Arson,”** he said quietly and closed his eyes, **“Where are you?”** He didn’t know how it would work, but Arson had reached out to him once when she was in trouble. Maybe if he just focused on…something then he’d hear something or feel something. It was a long shot, but it was the best opinion he had.

              There was a dull aching in his chest like his lungs were about to collapse, and then it hit him all at once. His entire body screamed in pain, and he felt blood running down his face. Fear struck like a dagger in his chest before the feeling faded away and all that was left was a soft voice, like a whisper in a rainstorm.

              _“Help…”_

              **“Where are you?”** Anti whispered aloud, **“I can help you, but I need to know where you are,”**

              _“We don’t…know”_ the voice replied, _“We didn’t know where to go so we just…ran,”_

              **“Which way?”**  Anti said slightly louder this time, **“Arson, which way did you run I can find you,”** There was silence for a moment, but he knew the voice was still there.

              _“We ran to the beggars,”_ the voice said and Anti immediately took off down the road to the poor side of town, _“But the Hounds have found us,”_

              **“Where are you now?”**

_“A warehouse,”_ the voice said, _“We cannot run, we cannot fight…”_

**“Just hold on till I get there,”** he said through gritted teeth.

              The group had come into the warehouse room now; Arson could hear them talking and hear that woman giving out orders, but her body was so tired that the very thought of running made her want to claw at her eyes. She just laid on the ground completely still and mind numb.

              The box guarding her was roughly shoved away and her eyes snapped up to see one of them staring down at her with a sickening grin. She was roughly pulled up by her neck before she had the chance to respond as the woman from before stalked over with a sly smirk.

              “Well, looks like you gave us all quite the run,” the woman said and grabbed her by her throat hard. Spots started at her vision and her hands went numb as she clawed weakly at her neck, “But the fun’s over, I’m afraid,” She threw her down to the ground roughly and shouted some orders to the rest of her group as she pulled out her whip once more. Arson pulled herself up to her knees and stared at her in defeat, no longer afraid of the whip or what she would do to her. All she wanted was for this to all end.

              Blue lightning struck her arm as the whip lashed out and Arson let out a dry scream. If her mind was numb before then now it was burning like hot iron. Her skin buzzed painfully as she lashed her, again and again, hitting various areas: her stomach, her legs, her chest, her back. Each strike just made her angrier and angrier until she felt like she was going to scream and claw her own skin off.

              Suddenly, it stopped, and Arson was left bearing her teeth in pain. Her skin was still buzzing, and her eyesight was fuzzy, but she could just barely hear the woman say something.

              “This might be the biggest surprise of the day,” she said as the group turned to the person at the door, “Antisepticeye, here to prey on the weak as always?” Arson lifted her head and just saw Anti standing in the doorway knife in hand. She couldn’t remember if she’d seen him this angry before, but right now all she was focusing on was trying to get her body to stop shaking.

              L̴̸̡ę͞t̨͞ ͝͏h͜ęr ̨g͠o͠͡҉ he growled and his head whipped around wildly. Some members of the group looked back at Mirium but she simply scoffed.

              “Playing hero now?” she mocked, “My, a lot has changed since the collapse, hasn’t it?”

              “You’re not getting her Glitch,” she said sternly, “I suggest you stay out of matters that don’t concern you,”

              Sh̸e̡̡ ͘d̵̵o̸e͢s̴͠ ̧c̵͟o̡̧n͜ce̸̵r̷̵n̡͜ m̡̢͢e҉ he hissed and took a few steps forward n̶͞o͏w ̶̷le̴͢t̴͢ h҉̸er̴̡͝ ̷̷̢g̶҉o ͝b̸͝͏e̵͜fo̡̡̕r͏e̵͞ ̵͢I͢ ̨s̛͝ai͢͝͡d̶̢̕ ̕y͏͝o̶͢u̕ b̸̛a̛͢͡c̡k̶ ̷i͟n̷͠ ̷̢͡pi̶e͘͠͞c̴̶̴e̴s̴

              “I think War would like to have your head on a mount,” she said with a thoughtful smile. In a moments notice, the rest of the group launched themselves at Anti weapons at the ready but Anti was faster. Within minutes half of the group had been slain and was lying dead on the floor and the other half had backed off. Arson tried to move and escape, but Mirium grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and used her as a human shield with a knife to her throat. Arson gripped tightly to her arm as she dug the knife into her neck just breaking the skin.

              “Let us leave then!” she called and snapped everyone’s attention. Anti locked eyes with Arson as the rest of the group backed up next to Mirium, “Else little lady here has a permanent smile across her throat,”

              That thought sobered Anti up quicker than anything, but he was seeing something they couldn’t. Arson was struggling, but not it as desperate as before. A thin line a blood traced the knife at her throat and Arson bared her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut; Her breathing hissed through her teeth. Something was wrong, very wrong.

              “Tell me Antisepticeye,” the woman said starkly, “Do you even know who this girl is?” She pressed the blade tighter to her throat and Arson squirmed under the pressure and dug her nails into the woman’s arms.

              A̵ hưnt͏er͡ ͡for ͞Wa͠r he said and tried to soften his voice bu͢t ͞Į ̷don͞'t͠ ͝t͟hi͞nk͝ Wa̧r͘ ̕to҉ld y͠ou͡ ̢h̕ęr͝ f͞ul͝l͜ s҉tory. The woman narrowed her eyes before growling and shoving the knife even deeper into her skin.

              “She’s a runaway stray,” she said and slid the tip of the knife along Arson’s cheek, “And she knows what she’s…” She was cut off as Arson bit down on her arm with impossibly sharp teeth. There was a sharp crunch as her bone snapped and the woman screamed in pain and let her go, but Arson refused to let her arm go. She jerked her head at an unnatural angle and they watched as Mirium’s arm was ripped from the elbow; Blood sprayed across the air as both Arson and Mirium fell back.

              Anti didn’t dare move. His skin felt like static, and for once he knew it wasn’t him. Arson stood just a few feet in front of him, her head glitching back and forth with a bloody snarl and a set of black razor-sharp claws itching at her throat in the blink of an eye. She eyed Mirium who was grunting in pain, clutching what remained of her arm, scared out of her mind.

              “Wha-what the hell?” she cried, but Arson didn’t move. It seemed like she was contemplating her next move, but Anti had a feeling that running away was no longer something she would consider.

              “What are you waiting for?!?” Mirium shouted, “FUCKING SHOOT HER!” There was a moment of hesitation from her group before one brave soul unholstered a pistol from her hip and took a very wide and shaky shot. Arson easily dodged it and was on the poor soul in the blink of an eye, grabbing at their throat and digging her nails in. Blood seeped between her fingers as the woman’s friends finally drew their guns and began shooting. Arson tossed the woman’s limp and dying body towards the group and launched herself forward with teeth bared and claws at the ready.

              Anti watched as she effortlessly cut her way through the group, ripping limbs and slitting throats as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He had an idea that _maybe_ she had something in her that made her enjoy killing, but this? This was putting Anti’s outbursts to shame. Their cries of pain and fear fell on deaf ears as one by one she ripped them limb from limb until the concrete floor was swamped with blood and broken bones.

              Arson stood among the carnage drenched in blood. Her eyes scanned the area looking for more bodies to rip apart, but the only person left was Anti who had yet to mutter a word or even move. She locked eyes on him for a second and her lips pulled back into a snarl, but an exhausted one. Her body heaved with labored breaths as she struggled to breathe from the slit in her throat, now made much bigger after her outburst. Her eyes drooped before she fell to her knees and then crumbled to the ground, unconscious and dead to the world around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're finally in the nitty-gritty of the story! Arson's break down is something I've been looking forward to writing for a long time so I want to make sure it fits right, and I feel like it really does.
> 
> Let me know what y'all think! There won't be much more big fighting like this for a while so now its all downtime and plot from here.


	11. Tea Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all ready for some proper interaction?!?!?
> 
> cause im not

              She couldn’t remember anything; After that woman brought that knife to her cheek her vision went black and she couldn’t hear anything anymore. It was like the void from when she was in Dark’s house, only this time she could feel something watching her from just beyond the darkness. Like the Beast from her nightmares, ready to lunge at her throat and rip it out with its fangs.

              Something brushed against her hand and she instinctively pulled her hand to her chest. Something was speaking in the darkness, but she couldn’t hear anything besides deep muffles and grumbles; Something grabbed at her neck and she swiped it away, but there was nothing but air.

 _“Can you open your eyes for me?”_  a soft voice asked, _“Please?”_ This only made her more anxious; The last time someone asked her to do something like that she met the cruelest woman she’d ever met.

 _“And you also met one of the nicest,”_ the voice retorted, _“I promise I’m not going to hurt you,”_

Arson took a chance despite every fiber of her being screaming at her not to. When she did, she found herself laying on her back with a brown hair woman looking down at her with a warm smile, a hood was drawn above her head and stopped just before her forehead.

“See?” she said with a smile, “I told you you're safe,” The woman stood and walked off as Arson sat up. She was laying in the middle aisle with rows of pews on either side of her and she could see a balcony hugging the walls with similar pews. The plush red carpet led to the front of the massive room where the woman methodically tended to a small garden of mosses and flowers atop a carved altar.

“What is this place?” Arson asked her voice crisp and clear and her hand drifted up to her throat. She was able to speak, and there was no pain at all.

“A safe place,” the woman said simply as Arson pulled herself up with ease, “A source of peace during a terrible time,”

“And who are you?” the woman glanced back with a small smile, but her eyes were sad and tired like she wanted something more but was told it would never happen.

“My name’s Eliza,” she said and returned to caring for the garden, “I’m the caretaker here in the church,”

Arson stood and held the side of her arm, more for comfort than anything. She could just barely see outside from the massive stained-glass mural, but what she could tell it was raining hard. It beat against the window like impatient fingers and there was an occasionally a strike of lightning the would light up the sanctuary and the mural.

“It’s quite a nasty storm, trust me on that,” Eliza said as she gently trimmed the leaves off of one of the smaller trees, “They don’t happen often, but when they do it’s best to stay inside till it passes,” Arson stayed quiet as she walked up the alter steps beside Eliza and looked down at the alter top garden. Small stones laid out a winding path along the table top with small hair grasses and snowdrop flowers blooming among them; An impossibly small oak tree grew in the far corner with even smaller trees dotted around it.

“The garden in the courtyard is much more impressive,” Eliza said with a dry chuckle, “But obviously…” As if on cue, a flash of lightning lit up the room and she scoffed in response.

“I’m more surprised something like this can grow here,” Arson said and gently traced the small grasses with her fingers, “and that this isn’t considered blasphemy, destroying an altar like this,”

“Is this _really_ destroying it though? Using it to create life?” she asked, “It looks intact to me,”

“Are we really going to debate philosophies over a tabletop garden?” Arson chuckled quietly. She liked speaking to someone again. She’d been alone with her thoughts for so long now that it was starting to get, well, lonely.

“The deepest conversations do happen in churches most times,” Eliza’s said with a shrug and a soft smile. Arson had a feeling that she was the same way, at least she had the company of others, but it seemed like Eliza was here by herself.

“I think…giving yourself so others can live is noble in a way,” Arson said, “but…” She felt Eliza’s gaze linger on her for a moment longer than it should have. Arson just sighed and dropped the rest of the conversation.

“Either way, something good can come of it,” Eliza said, and a silence fell between them.

A sharp knock broke the silence and made Arson jump slightly. Eliza simply walked to its source, a door the lead to a back room behind the sanctuary. Arson didn’t know who or what it was, but Eliza simply nodded her head and gestured for Arson to come to her. When she got over there, all that was past the door was darkness.

“I don’t…” Arson looked towards Eliza, but she was suddenly she was gone as was the sanctuary. Loneliness crept in as she held her arms and tucked her head, wishing to be anywhere but here.

Schneep had offered his home to them after Anti brought Arson’s body back to the clinic. He had tied up the two intruders and left them in the “Guest room” for whenever they woke up. They did small emergency sutures across Arson’s throat and quickly went to his house not knowing if the attackers had back up or not. 38 stitches for her throat, 6 for a gash across her thigh, and what felt like miles of bandaging to protect the electrical burns across her stomach, back, and arms.

Schneep had let her use his room since the only other rooms were rooms for his daughters and were far too small for her. Plus, Schneep had a feeling that Anti wouldn’t leave her side, so it would be better if there was a place for him to at least try to get some sleep; Schneep would simply sleep on the couch in the living room.

She looked even smaller in the Queen bed underneath the massive down blanket and quilts. Her temperature dropped sharply while Schneep was working on her, and even though he knew now that she wasn’t human, he still didn’t want to take any chances.

Anti was laid up beside the bed in an old armchair Schneep had tucked away behind a cornered armoire. It wasn’t comfortable at all, but he didn’t need it to be; He was here to make sure Arson stayed safe at that was it, not to be comfortable.

With one leg swung over the armrest and the other tucked under that one, he quietly scribbled down some notes in an old notebook. Comparing Arson's actions and traits to his own and try and predict any more surprises in the future. As far as he knew, he was the only Sin or Atrocity that was had physical glitches. Maybe there were some pre-collapse Sins or Atrocities with the same trait, but if so, he didn’t know about them.

The more he took note of it, the more he saw just how similar they really were. Not just with the glitches, but the fact that she can pull her own knife from the void when their all supposed to have unique weapons, her razor-sharp black claws, and how she always seemed to go for the throat when she attacked and how she squirmed when someone got near hers. Electrical attacks tended to cause the most pain, and there was that damned control collar Famine stuck into her neck.

There were differences too: she was more curious than he could ever be and there was the fact she had the power of fire at her fingertips, which had mysteriously gone away after Greed botched her mind. She was friendly, more social, and just wanted to know everything there was to know. Whether that was out of genuine curiosity or some training from War that had simply become second nature, he’d never truly know.

What worried him was that if she was so much like him, then there was no way he’d ever be able to predict what was going to happen with her. He was facing the same problem the scientists at the Compound had with him, he was unpredictable. Things just happened that we’re often out of his control. He’d suicide hosts for no reason at all even if he needed them to survive, he’d lead the police right to his doorstep and half the time he wouldn’t know until they broke down the door and shot up the poor bastard.

But those were when he first left the Compound after the Collapse. He had better control of it now that the years had gone on, but with Arson, there was that risk. Running off on a killing spree, killing her host, exposing him, these were all things that were now a potential problem.

Anti closed the notebook with a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair, feeling the dry, sticky patches of blood that clung to his hair; He needed a shower before all the blood on his skin and hair started to rot and go bad.

 _When she wakes up_ he said to himself wiping his hands on his jeans _the last thing she needs is to wake up somewhere she doesn’t know in pain._

 _Is that really the reason?_ An all too familiar voice said _Be honest Anti, you're worried._

“Considering how many people are after her? I think I have the right to be a little worried they might find her again,” Anti said quietly to himself.

 _Are you sure that’s the only reason?_ The voice said, and Anti could feel the teasing smile through his words. Anti didn’t respond and thankfully the voice fell silent. He knew from experience that she should be awake within the next few hours. All he needed to do was find something to occupy his time until she stirred.

Sure enough, a few hours later, the small lump under the cover’s subtlety shifted with a quiet, pained moan. Anti had busied himself by checking the windows anytime there was a loud noise (which happened a lot), snooping through Schneep’s personals before he settled for trying to get some sleep. He was just starting to doze off when she quietly sat up and looked around.

 _“Anti?”_ a quiet voice asked in the back of his mind; the same voice that he’d heard when he was looking for her after the attack.

 **“Right over here,”** he said. His voice was low and gruff being so close to sleep, but he was quickly waking back up now that she was awake, and that she was actually “talking”. She looked over to where he was, and her shoulders went slack, and she relaxed. Her eyes were still a strange mix between blue and black and the tips of her fingers were still black, but no longer clawed. Blood was still caked around her eyes, nose, and the corners of her lips; they’d managed to get most of the blood off her skin, but not all of it.

 _“Where are we?”_ she asked and sat up more showing the thick bandaging covering her chest and neck.

 **“Schneep’s house,”** he answered, **“I brought you back after you blacked out at the warehouse,”**

 _“The warehouse…”_ she held her head for a moment, no doubt trying to ease a pounding headache, when she saw her hands still partially covered in blood and black.

**“Do you remember what happened?”**

_“It…was something bad, wasn’t it?”_ Anti shrugged

 **“Not in my opinion, but I’m not the best person to ask for that,”** It didn’t surprise him too much that she couldn’t remember what happened, it was something that happened to him a lot in the beginning. Another similarity to add to the list…

 **“What can you remember?”** he asked. It was very much a loaded question, but if he got a better idea of what those people were then he’d have a better idea of what to do next time. That was if Arson didn’t snap and slaughter them all again.

 _“I remember running,”_ she said, _“Running to the warehouse and I fell because I couldn’t run anymore. I just crawled behind some boxes and hoped the Hounds wouldn’t find me,”_

**“But they found you anyway,”**

_“They always find who they’re after,”_ she said with a shake of her head, _“No matter how far you run or how well you hide, they’ll always find you,”_

**“The Hounds?”**

_“Hellhounds,”_ she said with a strange mix of fear and anger, _“He uses them to do his dirty work,”_

 **“He?”** Anti asked as he sat up straighter, **“Who’s he?”** Her eyes dropped slightly, and she frowned.

 _“I..I don’t know…”_ she admitted and started picking at her nails nervously. Knowing her track history it was probably War she was referring to, but she just didn’t know it. She was slowly remembering, but not at the same time.

 _“They had these horrible whips that burned everywhere they hit me_ ,” she said, and her eyes stared off into the distance, _“Then you showed up,”_

 _And who knows what would have happened if you didn’t_ another voice said alongside hers, and for once he agreed. She could have easily been killed or taken back to War and had god knows what done to her.

 _“After that, I have no idea what happened,”_ she and gestured to her arms and chest, _“You’d be able to tell me more than I would,”_ She over at him expectantly, but he simply sighed and stood up.

 **“Just…try and get some more rest, ok?”** he said. She wasn’t ready to know that she’d effortlessly slaughtered at least half a dozen people, he doubted she’d react well to that sort of news, **“Do you need anything?”**

 _“Something to drink, if you don’t mind,”_ she said meekly and settled back down under the blankets, _“My throat feels like it’s on fire,”_

 **“I’ll see what I can do,”** he said with a thin smile. She covered her head with the covers as he quietly made his way out the room and closed the door behind him.

Schneep was downstairs in the kitchen washings some dishes when Anti walked in. He could see a few different surgical tools set aside for cleaning still covered in blood; Schneep was so lost in his task that he didn’t notice Anti walk in until he opened the fridge.

“Oh Anti!” he exclaimed, “I vas wondering if I would see you anytime soon,”

 **“I was waiting till she woke up,”** he said as he dug through the fridge looking for the ingredients for something that had helped him with his throat pain in the past, **“She wanted something to drink so…”**

“Vell, zat’s very sweet of you Anti,” the doctor said as Anti grabbed a golden bottle of honey and found a half empty box of peppermint tea. Even though he wasn’t much of a tea drinker, he swore by peppermint tea when it came to easing the pain of a bleeding throat. While it wasn’t as effective as pain medication, it would help numb her throat and, hopefully, help her get some sleep.

He set up the kettle as Schneep silently sat a clean mug beside him already wiped down and ready to be used. Anti took a seat at the kitchen island and waited, hoping the time and tense silence would pass quickly.                 

“So,” Schneep said trying to break the uncomfortable silence, “What actually happened at ze warehouse? If you don’t mind me asking,”

**“What do you mean?”**

“She looked worse zan when she was on ze kitchen table in your house,” he said plainly, “I just want to know vat is going on and who those people that broke into my clinic were,”

 **“I… really don’t know,”** Anti admitted, **“Arson called them “Hellhounds” and they were here for her, but she doesn’t remember a lot past that. She lost her memory after an…accident a while back,”**

“Yes, I noticed some old scarring across her scalp and temples when I was first treating her,”

 **“She’s not human, Schneep,”** Anti blurted out and Schneep paused for a split second, **“I don’t know how just yet, but I know that she shouldn’t be here. Her wounds there…”**

“Self-inflicted?” Schneep guessed and Anti kept his eyes on the kettle preying for it to boil faster, “I had a feeling zey were. With how deep it vas it looked like yours, but you wouldn’t harm a hair on zat girls head,”

**“And what makes you say that?”**

“In all ze years I’ve known you you’ve never helped anyone unless zere was some gain in it for you, and as far as I can tell, she von’t be able to help you with anything,” He dried off the last off the medical tools and turned towards Anti and leaned against the counter, “I don’t know vat vorld or society you came from, and maybe Miss Arson came from the same place I don’t know. All I know is zat I have to serve my duty as a doctor and help those who need help,”

**“Even if they don’t deserve it,”**

“I never said anything like zat,” Schneep said rather sharply, “I’ve always believed zat everyone deserves help, but zat is just ze doctor’s oath I’ve taken. I’ve saved people from death who I think to deserve worse, of course I have, but it’s not up to me to judge zem,”

“Zat is up to ze Almighty or vatever,” he said with a wave of his hand as he pulled the kettle off the eye before it began to whistle. Anti dropped his gaze and tried not to think of it all as Schneep poured some boiling water into two mugs and set them on the counter and left.          

He tried not to think about the Almighty or the Guardian and he didn’t think he was the only one. It was history only a Horsemen could tell truthfully, and Anti was never good at storytelling anyway. Every Sin and Atrocity knew of the Almighty and the Guardian because it was how they came to be. Anti learned it from Famine when they were still at the Compound, but he doubted War ever taught Arson about them and if he did, that knowledge was gone by now. With one Horseman dead, one hunting them down, and the other trying to turn her into a bloodthirsty killer, that left only one other Horseman that could teach Arson who she really was.

But that was for a later time. He added a gracious amount of honey to one mug and steeped one teabag in while leaving the other one honey free as he started back upstairs. He balanced one mug on his arm as he quietly opened the bedroom door. There was no movement from the bed as he quietly made his way to the bedside table and sat the mug down.  

 _“Thank you,”_ she said softly and he could just barely see her face under the mass of covers.

**“I thought you'd be back asleep by now,”**

_“I wish,”_ she said and sat up and wrapped the blankets around her shoulders. She reached for the steaming mug and was completely unphased by its scolding heat. In the low lamplight, he could see the palms of her hands turn bright red against it.

_“What’s going to happen now?”_

**“We’re going to wait here for a while,”** he answered, **“Just to make sure they won’t come back,”**

_“And if they do?”_

**“Then we deal with that then,”** he sat down with his own mug in his hands, **“but that’s not your problem. Just try and get some rest, alright?”** She looked at her drink and nodded her head, but he could tell that she was still worried. It was all warranted, even if she did kill almost all of them herself.  

 _“What happened? At the warehouse?”_ She didn’t look up from her mug, _“I’ve…tried to remember, but all that’s there is black and…”_

 _“There’s too much blood for it to be self-defense…”_ she took a long sip of her drink, _“And my wounds…”_

 **“It’s hard to explain what happened without knowing exactly what you are,”** Anti said and Arson finally lifted her head and looked at him with a questioning glance, **“It would be better to wait until your more healed, plus, I’m not the best of stories tellers,”**

_“What I am?”_

**“A normal person can’t survive the things you have,”** he said, **“You don’t remember, but you’ve had much worse injuries than what you’ve got right now. One of them is the reason why you can’t remember anything before you woke up at Dark’s house,”**

**“There’s a group of beings that live among humans. They dictate what wrongdoings they do, and they have since the beginning of time; Famine is one of those beings, and so is Dark.”**

_“And you?”_

**“At some point, I was considered one, but… things happen,”** he cut the story short as he took a sip of his own drink, **“But like I said, I’m not the best storyteller.”**

 _“So, I’m considered something like Famine or Dark?”_ she asked, but Anti didn’t answer at first.

**“That’s where it all gets complicated and it’d be better for someone else to explain this all. Someone better at this than me,”**

_“I think I get it,”_ she said, _“kind of,”_

**“It gets confusing so it’s usually best to not think about it. Now try and get some rest; They tea will make you tired I can promise you that,”**

Sure enough, about 30 minutes later, Arson had settled back into her cave of blankets and pillows. He could tell she didn’t want to sleep, and she tried forcing her heavy eyes to stay open as long as possible either out of stubbornness or fear. There were a few times she startled herself awake and wide eyes searched the room for an enemy that wasn’t there until she found Anti sitting calmly in the same spot he had been when she’d fallen asleep. This only happened a few times before her breathing evened out and she fell fully asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arson can finally "speak" to Anti and this'll be explained more later I promise, but this relates to how she called out to him when she needed help before


	12. Request for a Raven

              It took him a while to locate where exactly the last Horseman had gone after the Collapse. The few Sins that had survived got as far away as possible and most of them changed their names. He doubted he would change his name or even change anything about how he did his work; To him, it would just be a simple location change while to the rest of the Sins it was the ending of all they knew.

              Anti starting hanging around longer after his killings, lingering near hospitals and nursing homes, and attended what few funerals happened in Brighton until he found what he needed. During a burial for a drowning victim, a murder of crows was perched in the nearby oak watching the ceremony. A few of the guests had commented on the eeriness of their presence, but Anti knew what they were really here for.

              Anti walked off with the rest of the crowd while some of the closer relatives stayed behind to say their final goodbyes. He glanced up at the tree and saw the biggest crow watching him with ghostly pale eyes; The leader of the flock, now he just needed to bring them closer to him.

              There was a small bowl of nuts left at a finger foods table where most of the guests had retreated to, recalling fond memories of the newly deceased and giving well wishes to the family. He stole a hand full, just enough to feed the whole murder, and casually left pretending to view another grave that was close to the tree.

              One crow, small and thin, landed not too far away from where he stood as he read the inscription on the grave. He saw from the corner of his eye as the bird hopped closer and closer until he stopped about 9 feet away. Anti tossed two or three cashews its way as a peace offering. He watched as the bird pecked and eat some of them but took one back up into the tree; He didn’t bother looking up.

              Not too long after, the bird returned again, and Anti did the same thing. This happened for four or five times before finally, the largest crow glided down followed by two others. The watched him for a moment before Anti threw down the last of the nuts, and wiped his hands on his jeans. When he looked back up, the largest crow had perched itself atop the headstone with the other two dined on nuts.

              **“Where’s he gone, hm?”** he asked and raised a hand to brush the underside of the bird’s beak. The crow cawed and tried to nip at his hand, but Anti was faster. The crow cawed once more and eyed him closely before taking to the sky with the rest of its flock. He didn’t really know if that was supposed to be an answer or if he’d just spent 30 minutes looking at a grave and throwing nuts at the ground just to feed some birds. Either way, he hoped he’d get an answer soon.

              Around two weeks later and the cold was starting to set in hard. Walks to the shops and window shopping quickly turned to bus rides and Ubers, and more time spent in the house. Anti tried his hand at cooking a “homecooked” meal simply because him and Arson both were starting to get sick of take-out and delivery; They spent about 20 minutes deciding what would be easy to make and would warm them up, which was how Anti ended up cooking Shepard’s Pie and how Arson ended up in her usual spot on the counter.

              _“Have you ever made this before?”_ she asked as she bit down on a piece of carrot.

              **“Yeah, but it was a while ago,”** he replied as he carefully put the dish in the oven and set the timer, **“Hopefully I don’t burn the house down,”**

              _“I’m more concerned about you burning my food than then house,”_ She swung herself off the counter and curled up in the armchair with a blanket; Anti came in soon after, after cleaning up.

              It had become a bit of a ritual during the nights. Arson in the armchair either drawing or reading while Anti sat on the couch working on the laptop. It was a nice comfortable silence; something that they both had come to look forward to during the day.

              Tonight though was the start of all the Halloween movies that aired every year. Anti never carried much for them, but Arson had seen commercials for them on TV and _begged_ him to watch them with her. All he knew was that it was cheesy, bloody, and violent, a typical scary movie.

              About an hour into the movie and the timer went off for dinner. Arson didn’t even register it, her eyes glued to the screen as the killer stalked his victims through the neighborhood. Anti came back a minute later with a cut of the pie and a cup of peppermint tea. She thanked him with a smile as he sat down and continued with the movie. 

              _“This is actually really good, I’m surprised,”_

**“And you thought I would burn it,”** he teased, and Arson shook her head with a smile.

              There was a subtle tap on the kitchen window, but neither of them noticed over the sound of the movie. It wasn’t until it almost shattered that Anti noticed and saw a pale white eye peering in from the dark. He turned the movie down and went to open the window as the white-eyed crow flew in. It perched itself on one of the kitchen chairs and cawed loudly, a small rolled note was tied to its leg.

              **“Russia?”** he asked and the bird cawed once more and hopped to the counter. By now Arson had come over to the kitchen and was leaning against the counter watching the crow as Anti continued to read the note.

              **“I knew he’d be out there away from everyone, but this far? Really?”**

_“Am I going to be let in on the plan?”_

              **“Remember what I told you at Schneep’s house? About how someone else could explain everything better than I could?”**

_“Is that the “someone”?”_

**“Where to find him anyway,”** he said and folded the note in his pocket. He tried to shoo the crow back out the window, but the bird squawked loudly and flew into the living room past Arson.

              **“I am _not_ chasing down that bird through the house,” ** he growled, but the crow definingly hopped from the coffee table to the couch pecking at leftover bits of Shepard’s Pie from the plates. Arson watched it for a moment as it went to and fro before she opened the pantry and pulled out a thing of old peanuts. The crow immediately popped its head up from the empty dish discarded on the couch and flew back to the counter as she gently laid out a few.

              _“Poor things just hungry,”_ she said as the bird quickly ate the few nuts on the counter. Arson poured a few more, but those were gone just as fast until the entire can was empty. She dusted her hands on her pants as the bird cawed for more, but Arson simply shrugged and shook her head. The bird stood for a moment watching her with one beady white eye then hoped towards the kitchen window and took off into the night.

              **“Remind me to let you handle any animal encounters from now on,”** Anti said with a smile and shake of his head as they both returned to the leaving room, **“They don’t like me much,”**

              It was going to be a while before they could leave; There was a lot of prep to be done for videos, and he knew they would be gone at least 2, if not 3, weeks. Anti had traveling paperwork and a passport, but Arson didn’t so that was one thing that was needed. They could always travel the wires, but the town was so remote that it would only take them halfway and then they’d be forced to walk the rest of the way. They were at the start of winter now and the winter temperatures in Russia were not something to underestimate.

              Three weeks after the raven had arrived at the house and they had finally started the three-day trip into the Russian wilderness. Each of them had bundled up in as many layers possible and were still cold despite the heat from the bus they needed to take for the last leg of the journey.

              The only sound was the clanking of pots and pans overhead that were latched to the roof of the bus and the soft radio playing by the driver that would occasionally burst with static. There were a few other people traveling with them, but they stayed silent and didn’t mutter a word the entire 7 hour trip through the snow and ice; They simply stared straight ahead. Arson was between him and the window and had fallen asleep not long after the start of the trip. Her head tipped and dipped with every bump and jostle of the bus, but she eventually found a spot for her head to rest. He knew that she never seemed to sleep, so he really didn’t mind when her head gently touched his shoulder and she fell still. He simply twisted his shoulders, so she didn’t have to turn her body so awkwardly.

              “All off for Oymyakon,” the driver called as the bus lurched to a stop. You either had the choice of shoving past everyone in a strange half crouch position to get to the door up front, or there was a bigger door in the back that was used for loading luggage.

              **“Hey, wake up,”** he said quietly and gently shook Arson’s sleeping form. She grunted and buried her face into his jacket, **“We’re here Arson,”** By now, a few of the passengers had started shuffling towards the opened door and the freezing air was now taking over the bus once more. She eventually raised her head as much as she protested; Her sleepy eyes scanning the emptying bus and where they had ended up.

              The town was simple and bare of anything other than complete necessities. You could just barely see the raising smokestacks from the homes over the heavy snow and wind. There was the faint calling of what sounded like deer from somewhere outside of town, but he could see any sign of any animal aside from the large bear dog that was following beside them.

              _“Where are we going?”_ Arson asked as she followed along in his tracks with her duffle bag slung over her shoulder. She stumbled slightly at the force of the wind and the amount of snow in the path even though she was following right behind Anti.

              **“Note said the biggest building in town,”** Anti said just loud enough to be heard over the wind.  Looking around he saw that most of the buildings were just homes and he could see something that looked like a community building in the distance, but just down the railroad tracks was what looked like an old office building; It had to be the biggest in town.

              They pushed on through the wind and snow until the finally came to the old building and nearly fell inside. A few of the windows were busted and he could hear the wind whistling past the cut glass. Arson shook the snow from her hood and shoulders and ran a gloved hand across her face to try and warm up; Her cheeks and tip of her nose were rosy and Anti felt his own face flush with the sudden lack of wind and snow.

              They walked deeper into the building until the wind was just a whisper, but it was overpowered with soft muttering and gentle sobbing. Their footsteps bounced off the walls and Anti could just barely see humanoid shadows watching them from office doorways along their path.

              “You two look like ya ain’t ready for this place quite yet,” a raucous voice called from behind a desk. A hunched back man glared at them over the edge of a counter, one half of his face drooping and the other was scowling like Anti and Arson were rats found in the kitchen. He had an overbite and his teeth were crooked and missing, some even had holes straight through them that he played at with his sickeningly grey tongue.   

              **“We’re here to see someone,”** Anti said roughly with enough bite to show that he wasn’t going to be pushed around. The other man scoffed.

              “If they’re ere then ya missed ya chance,” he said and hobbled out from behind the desk, “This is the last stop for the dead,”

              **“And it looks like Death still hasn’t taken you on the train, has he?”** Anti teased with a toothy smirk, **“Pissed you gotta serve some time before you can see the tundra?”**

              “Why ya little…”

              “Ajal,” an old frail voice said and the man visibly flinched. All three of them looked over as an old man, easily in his 80s, walked around the corner with a tired look on his face. He was covered in dirt and soot, and his wrinkles seemed like canyons and craters on his skin. A snowy beard was dulled with dirt and his clothes were old and well worn.

              “Why are you heckling our guests?” he asked, and Anti felt goosebumps on his arms. Ajal stuttered and fumbled with his hands for a few minutes pointing towards him and Arson before he was finally able to speak.

              “They’re here to see someone n I was just following ya rules about not lettin the livin in,”

              “They’re here to see me, Ajal,” the man said, and his face went white, “Please, go back to the counter. I’ll be leaving soon,”

              “Of course,” The elder looked over to Anti with a kind smile as if he was an old friend, and in a way he was.

              “Walk with me,” the man said, “We have a lot to catch up on,”

              **“You don’t know the half of it,”**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a small little update since I'm home for the holidays. I'll be updating more regularly up until January when I go back to class, but I've got some big plans for the story in the meantime. 
> 
> Next Chapter! We're traveling along the railroad and we'll get to learn more about the history of the Sins and maybe find out what the Collapse was all about :)


	13. Across the Tundra

              She didn’t like the feeling this place gave her. It felt like something was crawling up here spine and was slowly wrapping its fingers around her throat as she followed Anti and the old man. Figures darted just out of her line of sight and into old abandoned office rooms and she was fighting every instinct she had to not cut and run after them to chase them away.

              “I was surprised when Malachi came and said you were looking for me,” the man said as they turned into a well-lit furnished office with a warm fire burning in the fireplace, “From what I remember, you hate spending time with any of us,”

              **“If I had to pick between the three of you when I need help, you would be the first person I would try to find,”**

“That I see,” he said and sat in one of the leather-bound armchairs near the fire, “Take a seat, you surely must be cold. Can I offer you something to drink?” Anti shook his head and glanced back to Arson who also shook her head, but this seemed to be the first time the old man had noticed her.

              “Well,” he said with a warm smile, his wrinkles folding up near his eyes, “Apologies miss, I didn’t know you were here,”

              **“She’s the silent type,”** Anti teased, and Arson sneered and stuck her tongue out, **“And why I sought you out,”**

“Well, let's get to it then,”

Anti kept it vague, but he knew that as soon as he said her name that Death would be curious. He explained the situation and what Greed had done and why he couldn’t go to Famine. He tried to explain the Hellhounds and how War was connected to all of this, but he still wasn’t quite sure himself. He was partly hoping the Horseman would have some answers or at least help him find some.

              “This does seem like quite the predicament,” Death said as he scratched his beard. By now Anti and Arson had both taken a seat opposite of the man and dropped their bags beside them; Arson had taken off her coat saying that she was getting too hot with the fire and had tied it around her waist. She tried to see if she could remember anything about Anti had said happened, but it was still fuzzy and made her head hurt to try, “I’m assuming you remember nothing before you woke up at Dark’s house?” Arson shook her head in response and the man leaned back with a thoughtful grunt.

              “I’d gladly help with what I can,” he said, “but, I’m about to head out on the tundra to the mountains.”

              **“We’re fine with tagging along,”** Anti said, and Death chuckled and shook his head.

              “You know I can only allow the deceased to cross with me,” he said, “then again, no living person ever really asked.”

**“Will they really care?”**

              “Unless you want the wrath of the All Mighty and their Guardian on us,” Death joked, “though both of you reek of death enough that you could pass through without much trouble especially if you’re at my side,” Arson scrunched her face at the comment, but didn’t say anything about it.

              “If you’re willing to take the risk,” the old man said, “We’re leaving out soon so make sure you have all you need.”

              They met back up at near an old subway tunnel that was connected to the building. It was still partially unfinished with rotten scaffolding and forgotten bricks discarded near the rounded walls. Death had led them through a second secret way into the tunnels so they wouldn’t have to be ushered along with the dead who were waiting patiently on the other side of the tracks. Arson could hear them shuffling and groaning, but most were silently weeping it seemed. From what little she saw between the train cars, men, woman, and even child stood with unblinking eyes waiting for their turn to board.

              They ended up in a living car of sorts with plush chairs and couches lining the sides. A writing desk sat towards the front from fresh fruits on a silver plate; The car was warmed by a fire the burned slowly by the door.

              _“Where exactly are we going?”_ she asked as the car suddenly lurched forward with a groan.

              **“Death’s job is to help usher souls to where they belong,”** Anti said as he sat on one of the couches, **“Where they go is up to the All Mighty,”** Arson just nodded her head and sat in a nearby armchair. The warmth from the fire and the days of traveling were starting to creep up on her, but she didn’t feel safe here. It was like something was near her just out of her sight like it was hiding under the desk or between the cushions of the chair.

              She watched as the darkness of the tunnel slowly faded until they were back out in the snow. The blue mountains loomed like a shadow in the distance and, eventually, the soft lights of the village faded away into the snow.

              There was a soft knock at the door a few minutes later as Death entered covered in snow with the crow from before perched on his shoulder.

              “Now then,” he said, and the bird hopped from his shoulder to the back of an unused couch, “Hopefully they’ll be able to work without me for a few minutes,”

              **“If they ever want a chance to just ride the train and not work it then I’d think they’d behave,”** Anti said as he sat up straighter.

              “I’ll be able to talk more once we cross, but I figured we could get a few things out of the way while we travel,” he turned his attention to Arson who suddenly felt wary and uncomfortable under his gaze. “There’s a lot to take in when it comes to the entirety of the Sins and Atrocities, so I think its best to start at the beginning of it all,”

              “Eons ago, before humanity had spread far across this world, they all lived in one place together in what the All Mighty hoped would be peace and stability, but even the All Mighty makes mistakes and his creatures were horribly flawed beings. Instead of protecting each other, they fought and killed each other for a profit of revenge; Instead of respecting the Earth and her riches, they soiled the land and drained the water. Instead of working together to cure their ailments and plagues, the neglected each other and allowed sickness to thrive.”

              “This is how the Horseman came to be: Myself, Famine, War, and Pestilence. We were young, much like humanity itself, and knew no control. Once we came into being the known world fell into chaos. There was more blood in the rivers than water and more corpses than living people.”

              “The All might create a being themselves that is only known as the Guardian and to protect them from being corrupted by us, the All Mighty gauged out their eyes and replaced it with a pure white cloth that could never be stained with blood. The Guardian was also given the power to destroy any living being be it human or Sin with just a gaze, but has never used the power,”

              _“So how can you be sure they have that kind of power?”_ Arson asked and Anti spoke for her.

              “They show us mercy,” He answered, “they knew, long before any of us, that we were born to keep a balance in humanity, to keep them from reaching numbers even the All Mighty couldn’t handle. Human’s don’t know it, but with enough work, they could destroy everything the All Mighty provided them while forgetting about the All Might themselves,”

              **“Nothing is completely powerless until it's forgotten about,”** Anti spoke up, **“That’s why something you can’t see but is told still exists is a terrifying thing,”**

“But that’s getting into humanities various religions which is a whole other story,” Death said with a wave of his hand

              “Over the years as more and more Sins and Atrocities cropped up, the more humanity became aware of our existence. Being as curious as they are, a few of them managed to find us and the Guardian and made a deal; They would clean up their act if we allowed them to study us and learn how we came to be.

              _“And that was how the Compound was made?”_

“It was supposed to be a place of gathering between the Sins and humanity, a place where we could study and learn about each other, but it quickly fell apart. Nothing can make up for what went on in there; playing God with helpless souls, doing what should be left to the All Mighty and the All Mighty alone, killing just to see what would happen, pitting Sins against each other,” The three of them sat in silence for a minute maybe thinking of the times before the Collapse, but whatever thoughts came back weren’t pleasant. When she heard the name, her body filled with dread and her arms tensed up; She could smell burning metal and feel phantom bindings wrap around her chest and arms. It made her want to run and hide away, or maybe fight back until it all went away, she couldn’t tell.

              _“I’ve been there, I think,”_ Arson said softly, and Anti’s head snapped to her, _“The Compound,”_

**“Why do you think you’ve been there? Are you starting to remember?”**

_“I…I don’t know. Just the name feels familiar,”_

              “Every Sin knows about the Compound because every Sin has felt the effects of the Collapse in one way or another, some more than others,” Anti ducked his head with a grunt that he must have thought no one would see, but Arson caught the subtle shift in his face and the tightening of his jaw.

              _“What was the Collapse?”_

**“A shit show, that’s what it was,”** Anti said harshly, **“It’s where humans got what they deserved for doing what they did for those of us not lucky enough to walk with them,”**

“The Collapse was when the Sins pushed back against humanity, rebelled against them. Most don’t really know how it started, but it was widely known the death of Pestilence laid the groundwork for it and Famine lit the spark.”

              **“Or they just blame it all on me,”** Anti growled, his voice much deeper than before and she could hear the broken glitchiness at the end of his words, **“Easier than blaming a Horseman anyway,”** He got up and stormed from the car out into the hallway, and Death did nothing to stop him as he slammed the door behind him. Arson wanted to follow, but Death told her it was best to wait here until he cooled off.

              “A lot of people blame Anti for the Collapse cause, well, he was seen as a bad omen. They treated him like a lab rat because of what he is, and even when I expressed concerns about it people didn’t listen,”

              _“What he is?”_ Arson mouthed and thankfully Death understood, _“He isn’t any different than any other Sin, is he?”_ Death simply answered with a tired sigh and rubbed his face, suddenly showing his age.

              “That’s…something you’ll have to have him explain,” he said carefully, “I wasn’t there, and I don’t fully understand it myself. Just, be careful because it’s a testy topic,”

              _“He wouldn’t hurt me,”_ she said, but Death looked doubtful at best.

             

             

             

             

             

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year :) I took some time off from the story to plot out upcoming characters, events, and how other egos will come into the story. I just kind of sat back I thought about how I wanted the story to go, and try not to stress so much about it ya know? I started writing to help improve my grammar and help with stress so I'm trying to take my time with chapters now.
> 
> That being said, I am trying to get better at taking criticism this year. I stopped one of my best stories because someone wrote a review about all the things wrong with the story (Plot holes and stuff that I should have been able to catch before posting) and I haven't been able to continue the story since. I'm not going to let that happen with Part of a Whole because I've spent so much time on it it basically feels like a part of my life now.
> 
> Anywho, the next few chapters are gonna have some juicy juice backstory for both Arson and Anti and maybe some stuff about the Horseman and the Compound. As of posting I already have most of the next chapter written so it'll be up soon and it's going to be decently longish.
> 
> Happy reading Y'all!


	14. Partner in Crime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was supposed to be quite a bit longer, but for the sake of story flow I cut it off where I did because I felt it would have been too many events for one chapter plus there's a bunch of backstories planned for the next few chapters and I didn't want to overload everyone on one chapter.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

“Watch your step coming down. Ice everywhere on the steps these days,” Death warned as he helped her down from the train. They had arrived not too long after Anti stormed out of the car, Death left soon after that leaving Arson by herself. She once again thought about going and finding Anti, but heeded Death’s warning and simply wait until he came back.

Death said that they had gone further North so she expected there to be another sharp drop in temperature, but instead she didn’t feel any colder than before. Actually, she felt slightly warmer like they were back home in Brighton and not 3 miles from the Arctic circle.

The town they ended up in resembled a rebuilt ghost town half buried in snow. A system of roads had been padded down from maybe decades of foot traffic that twisted through the different houses and buildings.

“This is the dead’s final resting place,” Death explained as they all watched the people shuffle along into the town. Some of the people already residing in the town were waiting eagerly just past the gate, and Arson saw a few people run and embrace each other with tearful cries.

“After this place, they either fade from the memory of the living, continue on into the endless wilderness, or they’re stuck here until things are mended from their past,”

**“Had many people stay that long before?”**

“Unfortunately…” Death said with a deep sigh, “But come on, I’ll get you past the gate and settled in somewhere decent for living folk to stay.” Arson stayed close behind Death as he cleared a path separate from the one the dead used, and Anti followed not too close behind. As they neared the wooden gate, she began to hear the shouts and cried of the dead calling out for their loved ones to join them.

“Leza!” a young boy’s voice cut clear above the rest and Arson stopped in her tracks, “Ms. Leza!!” She looked and saw a young boy no older than 10 standing on the fence bars. She couldn’t really see his face but saw his hand waving frantically to get her attention.

 _Benjamin…_ Her heart started to thud painfully, and she felt like crying or running and embracing the young boy in her arms. _Why are you still here??_

 **“You alright?”** Anti asked. Arson turned and looked back at the fence, but the little boy was gone.

 _“Yeah, just… hearing the dead calling out is a strange thing,”_ she gave a half convincing smile; Anti didn’t seem to believe it but didn’t say anything more and they continued on. It was another small cottage a ways out from the town. Death said that he himself stayed here when he needed to stay over in the town. It was warm and bright, a nice change from the ever fading dark and cold.

“Now, since we were talking about the Guardian before then you might have wondered why we all haven’t been struck down in a fit of their rage,” Arson shrugged as he started a fire, “Well, that would fall on War,”

_“Doesn’t it always?”_

“War is the youngest of the Four and acts like a spoiled child,” Death said bitterly, “He was the first to want to break away from humanity and give them the revenge he thought they deserved. At the time, the rest of us disagreed so he started his own plot. He plotted to take me out because without me, humanity would be able to move on and die and would be stuck in an endless cycle of pain and torture without end,”

**“And that didn’t go to plan,”**

“Both fortunately and unfortunately, we were able to find out about the plot and confronted him before he could do anything. He had someone planned on us knowing and tried to take me out, but Pestilence stopped him at the cost of her own existence. The Guardian found out almost immediately and punished War the worst way they knew how.”

“War was always accompanied by another Sin with the same vile intentions as he and both were known to cause unnecessary death and havoc. He called her his Queen, and his punishment for killing Pestilence was to have her taken and locked away,”

 _“Who was it?”_ Arson asked and Death simply sighed. He cast a glance at Anti who was know invested in the story as well. Famine had never told him that War had a sidekick, or that they were taken away because of what he did to Pestilence, _“Well?”_

“Her name was Arson,” he said and Arson felt her heart stop, “and that was one of the reasons why I agreed to take you this far because you share her name,” This was made all the more frightening for the fact that she can’t remember anything about War or even what he looks like.

 **“That would explain why War sent the hounds after you,”** Anti said, but Arson’s eyes were fixated on a crack in the floorboard. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes; Took a deep breath and tried to swallow the lump in her throat, **“Arson?”**

 _“I think I’d like to go to bed now,”_ her voice barely above a whisper to him. She simply stood and left the room; She didn’t know where the bedroom was, but she knew that she couldn’t stay there a minute longer. She ended up in some kind of storage room and locked the door behind her as she slid down the wall. The darkness swam around her far too dark to see a thing, but she wanted it that way. She didn’t want to see the snow, the dead, or even herself. All she wanted right now was the darkness and the strange suffocation that came with it.

Anti stayed out with Death and watched her leave. Now everything made sense and explained why Famine and Dark were so concerned by her name. She could have always changed her name as he did, but it seemed too quick to have come up with on the spot and she had forgotten everything from before the fight.

So how did she know that name in the first place?

“I hope this isn’t too much for her,” Death said, “War’s Arson was prideful and knew everything about everyone, but she seems…”

yht **“Quiet?”**

“From what I’ve seen,” he said, “She acts nothing like her former. Has she used any powers or shown anything that the former Arson would have done?”

**“Before Greed botched her at Dark’s house, she set fire to the LA countryside, and when we fought she used fire but she hasn’t since then as far as I know,”**

“You said earlier that Famine was running tests on her?”

 **“The same ones they did on me at the Compound I’m pretty sure, with that damned collar and wires,”** Anti scowled at the memory of her strung up in that dark room too weak to stand on her own. 

“Has she ever done anything that looked like something you would do? At least to Famine?” He hadn’t told the Horseman about Arson’s glitches or the slaughter she committed against the Hellhounds; That was very much like he, almost to a T.

 **“There have been…something that Famine might have seen in her,”** He gave up trying to lie and just told the flat truth, **“Actually, there are a lot of things she’s done that are similar,”**

“Like what?”

**“I’ve seen her glitch before, once when I saved her from Famine and once when she was attacked. She ripped through a half a dozen Hellhounds like it was nothing, ripping them limb from limb. But that’s all I’ve seen,”**

“That’s all you’ve seen?!?” Death hollered, “Anti, those are the main two things that separate you from the rest of the Sins!” Death leaned back and rubbed his face once more with a tired sigh.

 **“But its impossible to recreate what Famine did,”** The idea had now become a very real possibility, which made Arson and the whole situation in general much more dangerous.

“Not impossible, just damn near close to it,” Death said with a worried look, “But that would explain why her personality is so much different. She isn’t a natural Sin…”

 **“…she was made,”** Death nodded and Anti flopped back in his chair, his head swimming. Surely Arson didn’t know about this did she? She knew told him or even hinted that she was an abomina…

No, she wasn’t that. That was what he was, but Arson? She was kind and sweet, she was everything the opposite of him. She was someone who deserved to be treated better than he was.

“I think you should go a find where she went and the two of you should try and get some rest,” the Horseman said, “I wouldn’t say anything about what we found out, it might be too much for her right now and the last thing we need is her hysterical,”

**“She’ll be fine. I’ll make sure she’s ok,”**

“I know you will,” he said with a kind smile, “I’ll be back in the morning.” Anti stayed sat down until Death left the house and then stayed seating for a while more, thinking, and giving Arson more time to calm down and maybe come out on her own.

After a while he decided to go and find her, but he didn’t have to look very hard. All he had to do was follow the sound of sniffling and hick upped breathing; She was curled up in a dark corner of an old walk-in storage room. Anti could just barely see her and flicked on one of the overhead lights, only one of the wall lights had a working bulb and lit the room with a warm orange glow. Arson tucked her head tighter into her knees.

 **“Arson…”** he said softly, but all he got in response was a loud sniffle, **“Hey…”**

 _“Go away,”_ she said, _“I wanna be alone right now,”_

**“I’m not letting you sleep in a dusty old storage room without even a blanket,”**

_“Then get me a blanket and leave me alone,”_ she said stubbornly, _“Not like I’ll sleep anyway…”_ Anti huffed in annoyance at her stubbornness but knew that he shouldn’t get mad. She was upset and, as she said, wanted to be left alone. Only Anti could be just as stubborn as she was, and he wasn’t going to leave her alone, not after everything they found out.

He looped one arm around her back and one under her legs and swiftly picked her up; She grunted in annoyance but didn’t struggle against him and just laid in his arms as he carried her to one of the bedrooms. She was still trembling from where she had been crying and buried her face into the base on his neck.

 _“I knew that little boy,”_ she whispered, _“At the gate. His name was Benjamin,”_

**“No one was there Arson,”**

_“He called me Ms. Leza,”_

**“The dead will say anything to move on, don’t listen to them,”**

_“He was a sweet boy, always bringing sweets for the other kids during service,”_ Her voice sounded different now; Softer, like she didn’t want Anti to hear her, _“I tried to save them, but I wasn’t fast enough,”_

It was another thing that didn’t make sense, but that just seemed to be the status quo for her. He pulled the covers back and gently laid her down on the bed and covered her back up. She curled up once more, peering out at the wall as she pulled a pillow tight to her chest.

 **“Nightmares have been keeping you awake, haven’t they?”** Arson didn’t answer but looked up at him with tear-reddened eyes. He sighed quietly as sat in a chair nearby and propped his feet up on the bed, **“I get them too and it helps to have company to wake up to. I’ll stay right here as long as you promise to try and sleep,”**

 _“Only if you promise to try too,”_ Anti couldn’t stop the smirk or the chuckle

**“Promise,”**

Surprisingly enough, he was able to fall asleep for most of the night. He stayed up for a while to make sure Arson didn’t get up and wonder, but she stayed put tucked under layers of blankets and at least 5 different pillows. As she started to doze off, she would mumble aloud something, but he couldn’t understand a word she said with how hoarse and raspy her voice was; Her mumblings eventually turned silent and he could just see her body tremble slightly as she wept and eventually fell asleep. Anti fought the urge to make sure she was ok, make sure she could breathe as she buried her face in the pillows or make sure she was warm enough.

_Just because she might be more like you than you thought doesn’t mean you have to smoother her like a child._

_But you would have killed for someone to give a damn about you, in fact, you did remember? Left alone in that padded chamber…_

_Even if she is like me at least she has someone to show her how to control herself_ he thought to himself as he leaned back in the chair and adjusted his feet on the bed, _I had to learn that on my own with people breathing down my neck. She won’t have that here._ His eyelids began to heavy as sleep began to take its hold, and for once he welcomed its embrace.

The morning brought a cold chill, colder than Anti had ever felt before. The sky outside was a pale purple, but thankfully the snow had stopped. Arson had already gotten up leaving the bed a scattered mess of blankets and pillows. He found her sitting by the fire still somehow burning from last night, a steaming mug in her hand and a blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

 **“I will pay you 20 dollars if you show me where you got that,”** he said and pointed to the mug in her hands. She smiled and nodded towards the run-down kitchen where a kettle sat on low heat on the stove.

 _“Not as fancy as yours back home, but I don’t think you really care,”_ She took a sip of her own and her face soured up and he could tell she was trying to swallow the black liquid swirling in the mug.

**“Being up here suddenly give you a taste for coffee? Then I can finally take you to those coffee shops back home,”**

_“Oh no, it still tastes like complete ass, but it was the only thing warm to drink in the cupboards,”_

**“Death doesn’t get a lot of living visitors, but we’ll have to remind him that we still need food,”** He heard her chuckle from the fire as he grabbed a half stale granola bar and a cup of the questionable looking coffee and sat opposite of her. Her attention was on the flames that slowly danced and flickered on the charred logs; She played with her finger absentmindedly and twisted a piece of string that had come loose from the blanket, she was deep in thought.

 **“Sleep better last night?”** he asked and took a sip of his coffee. It certainly wasn’t the worst he had had before, but it was up there.

 _“Oh, yeah,”_ she said and snapped her gaze from the flames, _“It’s nice to know someone else is in the room; Feels like whatever’s hiding in the shadows isn’t brave enough to come out, especially when you’re there,”_ This kind of surprised him, but it made sense; The only times he had truly seen her asleep were when he was close by either working or trying to doze off himself, but the idea of someone relying on him to sleep peacefully was…strange, to say the least.

 _“It probably sounds crazy, I know; Beasts in the shadows.”_ She went back to looking at the flames and tucked her head on her knees, _“It’s such a childish thing…”_

 **“Everyone gets nightmares it’s not a childish thing,”** Anti said, **“Even me, if you can believe it,”**

 _“What could you possibly have nightmares about?”_ she teased with a chuckle, _“Running out of coffee?”_

 **“Hardy har,”** he mocked and then the grin on his face dropped, **“It’s like Death said, the Compound affected everybody…”** He dropped the topic quickly and went to staring into his half-empty mug; That was childish, blaming everyone there for what only a few people had done.

 _“Oh,”_ she said softly and they both fell silent for a while, the only sound was the crackling of the fire and the whispers of the wind outside, _“What…did they do to you there? You don’t have to answer I just…”_ Her words fell apart and she went back to staring at the fire.

 **“Similar to the stuff Famine was doing to you,”** he said roughly after a few minutes of silence, **“That’s why I wasn’t going to hear whatever bullshit excuse she would come up with. Those kinds of tests…they change you, and not for the better.”**

 **“They all blame me for what happened because I wasn’t meant to be here. I was a mistake, Famine’s mistake; She tried playing God and this is what it got her,”** He lifted his head and exposed the scar running across his throat, **“Someone who can barely contain themselves when they’re pissed off. You’ve seen them I know you have,”**

_“Those glitches?”_

**“That’s what they made that collar for. It was made for me to try and control them, but it only made things more painful, but why Famine used it on you I have no clue,”**

**“They isolated me and studied me like some kind of lab rat always running tests and testing to see how far I could go. They always put me up against Dark which led to the wonderful relationship we have now. We would go at each other and slaughter each other’s host’s anytime we got near each other and it always took a whole security team to break us apart.”**

**“I don’t know how the Collapse started, but I know Famine had a hand in it. She came and talked to me, asked me what I would do if I ever escaped that hellhole, and then the next day it all went down. All I wanted to do was hunt down the people who did those damned tests on me, so I did. I slit their throats and watched them bleed out on the floor desperately trying to crawl away. I carved out their eyes, cut out their tongues, skinned them, ripped off their nails…”** He could still smell the blood and hear their screams. It was like the strongest whiskey he had ever had, getting drunk of the sight of their missing eyes and bleeding throats, but there were so many innocent people that he killed while drunk off the scent of death and bloodshed. People who had shown him kindness the few times he had been let out or people that just didn’t deserve to die like how he made them.

He hadn’t realized that Arson had moved over and sat beside him or that she eventually wrapped onto his free arm and laid her head on his shoulder. He had spilled too much, let her know far too much, but she was bound to find out at some point if not from Death then by some Hellhound trying to turn her against him.

 _“Is that what your nightmares are about?”_ she asked, and he nodded numbly. He had never let anyone know that the Collapse haunted him as it did. He told Famine he was glad it happened and in a way he was. 

**“Only a few people really deserved what I did, but most of them didn’t; record keepers, janitors, technicians… They didn’t even know who I was or what was going on before I cut them down. Sometimes I’m back at my cell and their faces are in the windows watching and sometimes I’m back there cutting them down,”**

_“I’m sorry Anti,”_ she said and hugged his arm tighter, but he just stared off at her discarded mug.

 **“We’ve got similar stories, and that’s what scares me,”** he said and cleared the lump from his throat, **“and Famine taking such an interest in you doesn't help, and neither does the Hellhounds,"**

_“We've taken them out once before, we can do it again,"_

_She might not have a choice in what happens, you know this right?_ a voice said but he quickly chased it away. He’d fight the All Mighty and Guardian himself if it meant keeping her from becoming what he was, a bloodthirsty killer.

They both dozed off, the combination of a belly full of warm drink and the warm fire slowly lulled both of them back into an easy sleep; The easiest they both had in a long time. Arson still held onto Anti’s arm, but her grip had loosened in her sleep and Anti’s head had drifted to lay atop hers.

Death had walked in not long after the two had fallen asleep, but they were both so out that they didn’t even begin to stir. He just looked at them for a second before chuckling quietly to himself. Anti hated company, he just wasn’t a people person. The few people he did know either hated him or made him the way he was, but now he seemed to have found someone who genuinely cares. He only ever touched people if it involved killing to bloodshed yet here was someone weaker than him hanging off his arm asleep, and what made it even stranger was that he was asleep right alongside them; He was letting his guard down.

It wasn’t that late in the morning, he could late them sleep in just a little bit longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it was pretty late when I was writing most of the last bit of the chapter and Anti telling Arson about what happened to him during the Collapse was not suppose to go that way lol I had a whole other scene written and ready to go, but the story went this way. Oh well lol
> 
> So the truth of what Anti is is mostly out, remember I said mostly. If your smart enough you can piece together some context clues and get the full story, but if you can't don't worry, it'll be fully explained later on.
> 
> Up next, the meat of Arson's story!


End file.
